A WOMAN who threw a glass bottle at a DJ and hit a member of staff with a mobile phone at a bar in Towyn has avoided jail.
Jessica Bate, 23, of Vicarage Road West, Woodsetton, West Midlands, was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for one year, at Caernarfon Crown Court today (March 22).
She was ordered to pay more than £1,000.
Prosecuting, Patrick Gartland told the court that, on July 4, 2021, Bate and her family were in North Wales to scatter the ashes of her grandfather.
Later that day, she and members of her family met in Cues Sports and Entertainment Bar, on Towyn Road, for a drink.
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The family had not been there for long before their behaviour came to the attention of the manager, Michael Grindrod.
A DJ, Michael O’Neill, was playing music on the bar, and after one of the older females got up to dance, he told her that she had to sit down due to COVID-19 restrictions.
She refused to, so Mr Grindrod went to speak to her, which led to a male family member telling him to “f*** off”.
Mr Grindrod told the group to leave, but one of the males in the group apologised to him, and after the group sat down and matters were calmed, they were allowed to stay.
After last orders were called at about midnight, Mr Grindrod told the group they had to finish their drinks as the bar was closing.
Bate and a relative then approached Mr O’Neill, and her relative tried to grab his monitor, calling him a “k******d”.
Mr O’Neill came out of the boxed area he had been in, and both females were said to have been “screaming at him, but not making much sense”.
Another family member asked Mr O’Neill: “What have you said to my f*****g daughter?” before punching him, and a female relative started hitting him with an umbrella.
At this point, Bate picked up a bottle and threw it at Mr O’Neill, hitting him with it between his eyes, leaving him with "blood pouring down his face".
She later raised her fist to Mr Grindrod, before striking him on the top of his head with her mobile phone, which caused him to also bleed.
Other members of the public were still in the bar, meanwhile, including a 16-year-old who was working there.
Defending, Sarah Yates said that Bate had no previous convictions, and has not re-offended since this incident in July 2021.
Bate made full admissions of her behaviour to police from the outset and was said to have shown genuine remorse.
Sentencing, Judge Nicola Saffman accepted that Bate was “a person of exceptionally good character” prior to this incident.
She ordered her to pay £500 to each victim, as well as a £156 statutory surcharge.
This amounted to a total payment of £1,156.
Judge Saffman told Bate: “This incident was entirely out of character for you, as a result of your combined grief and alcohol intoxication.
“This is clearly a one-off situation; it’s clear this is an isolated incident.”
No rehabilitation requirements or community orders were imposed because, Judge Saffman said, “the prison sentence, albeit suspended, is, for a woman of your character, sufficient.”
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