TWO men kicked and stamped on a man’s head and body during a late night brawl in Chester city centre, leaving him bloodied and struggling to breathe, a jury has heard.
Christopher Brocklehurst, of Tennyson Walk, Blacon, and Daniel Jones, of Rake Way, Saughall, are accused of assaulting Brendan Shone, on the junction between Canal Street and Northgate Street in the early hours of August 25, last year.
The jury heard Mr Shone had been part of a group of five individuals who had got into an altercation outside the Liverpool Arms pub with the two defendants and a group of their friends, who had been enjoying a night out.
Paulinus Barnes, prosecuting, told the court the incident arose after a verbal altercation outside the pub resulted in one of Shone’s friends, Daniel Nield, hitting the back of Jones’ head with a brick, which then hit Jodie Lightfoot, a friend of the two defendants, in the face, cutting her mouth and sending her to the ground.
Nield, who pleaded guilty and was jailed for 10 months in November for assault, fled the scene immediately.
Appearing at Chester Crown Court on Wednesday, Brocklehurst, 33, and Jones, 30, pleaded not guilty to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
CCTV footage of the incident shown to the court showed the attack on Jones, but there was no footage available for the alleged attack by the two defendants on Mr Shone.
Mr Barnes said: “A group containing Mr Shone walked up towards the Liverpool Arms, where the two defendants were standing outside with a group of friends.
“Words were exchanged between the two groups, with the group containing Nield being aggressive and abusive towards those outside the pub.
“As the conversation goes on between the two groups, Nield comes from behind and strikes Jones to the back of the head with a brick which then flicks out and strikes Jodie Lightfoot in the face, knocking her to the ground.
“Nield and his group run away but one member, Brendan Shone, falls to the ground and was punched and kicked.”
The court heard Mr Shone’s face had been left bloodied by the attack, with his nose swollen and full of blood, causing him breathing difficulties. Fragments of his teeth were found on the ground.
Giving evidence, Miss Lightfoot told the court they had been minding their own business and had been subjected to abuse from the group walking up Northgate Street.
She told jurors that they had asked the group to move on and told them that they ‘didn’t want any trouble’, at which point Nield assaulted Jones with a brick.
The group containing Mr Shone and Nield had been asked by police to move on minutes earlier after Nield had approached an unmarked police car, reached in and grabbed an officer.
Giving evidence, PC Christopher Jones, who was the first officer on the scene, said he viewed both defendants assaulting Mr Shone, with one stamping on his head and another kicking the lower half of his body.