Licensee left with broken jaw
Two drinkers who left a Daventry licensee with a broken jaw on Boxing Day could be sent to prison.
Robert Dunn, aged 30, and Glyn Shakespear, aged 31, both from Daventry, pleaded guilty to affray at Northampton Crown Court, according to the Northampton Chronicle.
The case is the latest in a sickening spate of violence towards licensees trying to uphold the law.
Recorder Christopher Tickle warned a custodial sentence was an option. But a community order is more likely as neither men have any previous convictions.
"They have accepted joint responsibility for this person being kicked, quite disgraceful behaviour committing this attack on a landlord who was only trying to keep the peace in his pub," said Tickle.
"A fairly substantial community order is likely but a custodial sentence cannot be excluded."
The pair will be sentenced later this month.
The British Beer and Pub Association wrote to Home Office minister Vernon Coaker last month questioining whether a caution in cases where a licensee is attacked is an appropriate course of action.
Ray Sutton (pictured), Cains lessee at the Last Orders in Bolton, was left with two black eyes and a badly bruised face after being punched to the floor and kicked by a 17-year-old on Saturday, 11 August.
He had taken a drink off the teenager for being underage. His attacker was let off with a caution.
