A TEENAGER has been convicted of carrying out unprovoked attacks on two men outside a West Cumbria pub.
Mark Trainor, 18, was warned there is now a “strong likelihood” he will lose his liberty for what a judge called “gratuitous street violence” in Harrington, near Workington, just before midnight on March 15 last year.
Nicky Walsh suffered a double jaw fracture, severe bruising and cuts when he was knocked to the ground and punched up to half a dozen times as he tried to get up, while Matthew Nicol was also felled and sustained injuries including a gash to his chin.
Both had been customers at the Lifeboat Inn, at which an 18th birthday had been taking place in a function room.
Trainor, of High Close, Harrington, denied unlawfully and maliciously causing Mr Walsh grievous bodily harm, and denied an actual bodily harm assault on Mr Nicol. He’d been attending his best friend’s birthday party and was drunk but, giving evidence during his Carlisle Crown Court trial, said he’d left the pub before trouble flared.
However, Esha Denwood had told jurors she watched on the night as Trainor – whom she’d known for five years and regularly saw at the shop in which she worked – attacked the men. “I don’t even think they saw it coming. He just went over and hit them,” she said.
This afternoon (WED), a jury convicted Trainor, unanimously, of both offences before it was revealed the teen had previous convictions for violent crimes.
His case was adjourned for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, he is due to be punished on March 6 and was granted bail in the meantime.
“You need to appreciate the probability is, when you come back, you will be receiving an immediate custodial sentence,” said Recorder Christopher Hudson, who stressed: “I haven’t decided yet. There is a strong likelihood you will be losing your liberty.”
