While Max James, 25, of Rue des Petites Hougues, Vale, was jailed for two months for an assault, breaches of court orders imposed for previous similar offending took the total sentence to one of six months.
Crown Advocate Fiona Russell told the court how the latest incident had happened in Folies nightclub in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
It was busy night and the victim was the club manager. James had been up on the first floor when it was reported to the manager that he was bumping in to people and spilling drink due to his state of intoxication.
There was a lengthy discussion between the two men in which the manager told James he would not be served any more drink. This turned into an argument that resulted in the defendant pushing the manager twice in the chest.
Both men ended up on the floor and while they were there James struck the manager to the face. He was ejected from the club and arrested outside in the North Plantation soon after. The manager suffered no injuries but his shirt was torn.
James originally denied the assault before changing his plea.
Defending, Advocate Samuel Steel said his client accepted that the manager was entitled to do his work without being subjected to violence. His reaction had been unnecessary and inappropriate. He knew he should have controlled himself and left the premises.
In March last year James was made subject to a suspended prison sentence of four months for assaulting a police officer who had been conducting a bail check at his home. The same penalty was imposed in June after he assaulted another police officer outside the Britannia Real Ale Bar in Trinity Square. The new matter put him in breach of both.
Deputy Judge Graeme McKerrell said the defence had raised the mental health issues before and the defendant had been told then that he should not drink. He had no doubt that some type of intervention would help but the defendant had been given opportunities in the past, had a history of non-engagement, and had acted against medical advice.
The previously-imposed suspended prison sentences of four months were activated in full and, somewhat mercifully, said the judge, would run concurrent to each other.
Two months would be meted for the latest offence to run consecutive. A previously-imposed probation order was extended to the maximum duration of three years.