Brothers carried out brutal assault outside Reef bar

TWO brothers viciously beat a random victim outside a town centre bar and left him needing 17 stitches and a titanium plate in his jaw.

Lee Jones, 37, and Michael Jones, 42, appeared in Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, after admitting causing Grievous Bodily Harm.

Prosecuting, Iain Criddle told the court how the Jones brothers had been drinking at Reef bar in town, before Michael Jones, of Winstanley Close in Great Sankey, was kicked out by a bouncer.

They did not come across the victim while in the bar, who had left on his own to go and have a cigarette in a nearby alley.

CCTV footage was shown in court of the pair going up to the victim, with Lee Jones initially asking them for a cigarette. After this was given, Michael Jones, the bigger of the two brothers, comes up and asks to hug the man.

Mr Criddle described how the victim was intimidated by Michael Jones, who he described as ‘massive’.

The victim was smaller and shorter than both brothers.

After rejecting his request for a hug, Michael Jones hugged the victim anyway, squeezing his chest. The victim tells him of his asthma, and Jones eventually let go of the hug.

He followed by asking to shake his hand, squeezing it so hard that the victim fell to his knees.

After several minutes of conversation following this, in which the pair repeatedly put their arm around the victim, an argument broke out over a cigarette. This led the brothers being aggressive and threatening.

The victim describes seeing Michael Jones ‘screw up his face’ and then his memory being blank till later in the night.

CCTV showed the pair punching the victim in the face, viciously continuing to beat him even as he fell to the ground.

In a police interview, Lee Jones, of Fildes Close in Great Sankey, claimed the victim had started the fight, however the footage showed no evidence of this.

Mr Criddle instead described how the victim ‘was just unlucky enough to come across them.’

The attack left the man, who was 60 at the time, with six fractures in his jaw, a 5cm cut to the eyebrow which required 17 stitches, fractured nasal bones, and a concussion. The fractures to his jaw required a metal plate and several screws.

This is not the Jones brothers first offence for violent conduct.

Lee Jones has 13 offences on six occasions, including the beating of an ex-partner. Michael Jones has only 10 offences over five occasions, however this includes an assault in 2008, an assault and affray in 2010 for which he received a suspended sentence, and criminal damages in 2011.

In the victim personal statement, the court heard how the victim was afraid to go into town, and that the attack had ‘affected his quality of life due to the severity of the injuries’.

Judge Recorder Knifton said of the attack: "For no reason you attacked him repeatedly, punching in the face. He sustained serious injuries as a result of the assault.

"It was suggested by each of you at some stage that there had been some degree of provocation on his part. Having carefully studied the footage I can see nothing to indicate he was anyway aggressive towards the two of you,"

"Each of you have previous convictions for violence.

"The victim described being afraid to go into Warrington town. This was 6 months after the incident and so shows the severity."

Both brothers were imprisoned for 20 months.

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