An engineer, who viciously beat a
colleague at a works Christmas party, leaving the victim with a
collapsed lung, dodged jailed with a suspended sentence today.
Father-of-two John Garratt, 34, (pictured) of Juniper Lane, Flackwell Heath, High Wycombe,
Buckinghamshire, admitted the alcohol-fuelled attack and must now
attend anger-management classes.
He pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown
Court to inflicting grievous bodily harm on Glenn Smith in the rear
garden of an address in Round Grove, Shirley on December 10, last year.
“This was an unpleasant, pretty
thorough going over of Mr. Smith,” said Judge Ruth Downing,
sentencing Garratt to 11 months imprisonment, suspended for eighteen
months.
The court heard employees had gathered
at the suburban home of one of the firm's bosses and during the
evening the defendant, who had been drinking, challenged Mr. Smith to
step into the garden.
The victim, who believes a dispute over
pay may have been the issue that angered Garratt, was then subjected
to an attack with fists and feet.
He sustained bruising all over his body
and at one point felt he could not breathe, with doctors later
confirming he suffered a collapsed lung as a result of blows to the
body.
Garratt initially denied the offence,
complaining he had also suffered injuries, but pleaded guilty after
the judge indicated the sentence she would pass.
“It has caused him tremendous shame
and embarrassment,” Garratt's lawyer Mr. Richard Storey told the
court. “He has let himself, his family and his friends down. It is
so out of character for him.
“Alcohol was linked to the behaviour,
but it is not a problem and he has not had a drink since this
incident or gone out socialising.”
Garratt was also ordered to perform 200
hours community serice work, obey a four-month night time curfew,
attend an anger management course, pay £660 costs and £750
compensation to Mr. Smith.
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