A judge described the incident as a “wholly unprovoked, unwarranted attack”
Lee Nichols(Image: Merseyside Police)
A violent thug took retribution against a 72-year-old deaf man after being told to “f*** off” in Wetherspoons. Lee Nichols battered the pensioner in the street as he waited for a bus home from the pub.
The dad first shattered the OAP’s glasses when punching to him floor, where he then stamped on and repeatedly kicked his stricken victim. A judge yesterday branded the incident a “wholly unprovoked, unwarranted attack”, which came in revenge for the perpetrator being told to “f*** off” when he had earlier asked for money.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday that Nichols was begging in the Clairville, a JD Wetherspoon pub on Wallasey Road in Liscard, Wirral, at around 9pm on October 28 last year, with complainant David Barker also being present at the time. The pensioner however told the 48-year-old defendant, of Maryland Lane in Moreton, to “f*** off”.
Henry Riding, prosecuting, described how Mr Barker then took a picture of the other man on his phone after he had “come up close to him” in an apparent effort to “intimidate him”. This sparked Nichols to became “aggressive and abusive”, including hurling insults at him concerning his hearing difficulties.
Mr Barker remained in the pub until shortly before 11pm, after which he walked to catch a bus from a nearby stop. There, he was again approached by the same male and punched on the left hand side of the face.
This blow caused his glasses to break and sent him to the floor, where Nichols then stamped on him and began kicking him to the legs and ribs before leaving the scene. Mr Barker later spent two days receiving treatment in Arrowe Park Hospital after suffering injuries including a broken finger.
His assailant has a staggering 124 previous convictions for 226 offences, dating as far back as 1997. Nichols’ most recent appearance came in May last year, when he received 10 months behind bars for possession of an offensive weapon in a public place in relation to a plank of wood.
John Rowan, defending, told the court: “The vast majority of that offending is for theft from a shop, a record perhaps entirely consistent with a man who has struggled for many years with class A drugs addiction and alcohol issues. He has violence on his record, all low level with no offences of violence which have reached the point that we are in today.
“The defendant had recently been released from a sentence of imprisonment for the plank of wood. The defendant had been released homeless. He has not had accommodation for over 10 years and had spent his life street homeless, addicted to drugs and alcohol.
“The defendant did his best to deal with his drug and alcohol issues and came out of prison extremely positive. He did not revert back to using hard drugs. He was drinking. It is clear that, in the pub on this day, he was begging. What happened after that was a grossly disproportionate response to what Mr Barker had said to him.
“Mr Nichols, following this incident, did manage, to his great pride, to secure himself, for the first time in over 10 years, his own accommodation. Unfortunately, the police then arrested him a good few months after this incident. He has lost that accommodation, but he has been spending his time in custody positively.
“He has an 11-year-old son who he was having regular contact with, prior to his remand into custody in April. He is eager to rebuild the bonds of that relationship with his son upon his eventual release from custody.
Nichols admitted one count of unlawful wounding. Appearing in the dock wearing a grey Columbia t-shirt and sporting short grey hair and glasses, he was jailed for 21 months.
Sentencing, Recorder Louis Browne KC said: “It is quite obvious that this was a wholly unprovoked, violent attack on an elderly man. I note your previous offending history. It is truly appalling. There are numerous offences of violence. It is right to say that none of those offences are of the gravity of that which you fall to be sentenced for today.
“Essentially, your only mitigation is your guilty plea. This was a wholly unprovoked, unwarranted attack on a man who had done nothing to warrant this treatment.”