AFTER chasing another man and kicking him to the head in a cowardly attack, a Stratford man returned to rob his concussed victim of his mobile phone.
But despite the vicious nature of the incident in the town centre in the early hours of the morning, attacker Daniel Turoczy has narrowly escaped being jailed.
The 26 year-old pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to assaulting and robbing his victim Rockford Pratt, while 25 year-old co-defendant Adam Jackson admitted assaulting one of Mr Pratt’s sons, Charlie Bradshaw.
Turoczy, of Hamlet Way, was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay £1,000 compensation to Mr Pratt and £240 costs.
Jackson, of Badger’s Way, Stratford, was sentenced to nine months suspended for two years and ordered to pay £300 to Mr Bradshaw and £240 costs.
Prosecutor Mark Phillips said last November Mr Pratt was out with members of his family in Stratford town centre, and he and his two sons went to the Caz Bar night club.
In the early hours a brawl broke out in the club, during which bottles were thrown, as a result of which 39-year-old Mr Pratt and his sons were told to leave.
As they were walking home in high spirits they noticed they were being followed.
They were then pursued, and Charlie was pulled to the ground, and punched and kicked by a gang including Jackson.
Others attacked Mr Pratt and Turoczy kicked him in the head as he lay on the ground. Mr Pratt, bleeding from his face, got to his feet and could be seen on the CCTV recording staggering unsteadily in the road before sitting down.
But as he sat on the ground Turoczy came up to him again and began going through his pockets before taking his phone.
Toroczy ran off with the phone, but the police found him hiding in a nearby garden and arrested him.
Mr Phillips pointed out both defendants had previous convictions for violence, with Turoczy having been jailed for 18 months in 2007 after hitting someone with a beer glass, and Jackson receiving a suspended sentence for affray in 2010.
Regan Peggs, for Turoczy, said that in relation to the assaults there had been ‘more than usual provocation’ because Jackson had been glassed in the bar and had a scar as a result.
And Amy Jackson, for Jackson, said he had a young family, and pointed out he had not kicked anyone during the scuffle with Charlie Bradshaw.
She added Jackson, who had expressed remorse, was taken to hospital following his arrest to have a large cut to his head, which had been caused in the club, glued.
Sentencing the two, Recorder Martin Hurst told them: “I am very close to sending you to prison Turoczy, but I have decided I’m not going to – but it’s only just. You Jackson are in a better position, and there clearly was provocation to all this.”
