A West Cumbrian man who attacked his sister while she was prone on the ground during drunken indiscriminate pub violence has been jailed.
CCTV captured three minutes of shocking aggression and unruly behaviour by Antony James Gunn, 36, at Cleator’s Little Arms pub on Trumpet Road, on Sunday, January 22.
This came against a background of a difference of opinion between Gunn and his sister, Carlisle Crown Court heard today.
In the busy pub, Gunn forcibly pushed away one woman and pushed his sister to the ground before punching her while she lay on her back.
Bystanders tried to intervene but Gunn’s level of aggression increased. “He was seen to rip open his shirt and to randomly throw punches at anybody who came across his path,” said prosecutor Gerard Rogerson.
Police were called and when they arrived he was unco-operative and verbally abusive. Gunn clenched his fists and that, together with his facial expression, prompted one female PC to fear immediate violence from him.
Incapacitant spray was used in a bid to retrain Gunn, who continued to be abusive and aggressive, and made vile sexual comments to female officers present. “He was clearly under the influence of drink or drugs,” said Mr Rogerson, who called the defendant’s violence indiscriminate.
Gunn, of no fixed address, admitted affray and common assault. In a prepared statement when interviewed, he spoke of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since his father’s death, of being afraid of crowds and acting in self-defence during the incident when it had been his sister’s birthday. “I’m sorry if I hurt anybody but I feared for myself,” he said.
The court heard Gunn had received lengthy prison sentences in the past for attempted robbery, blackmail, grievous bodily harm and, in 2016, for aggravated burglary having burst into a couple’s home, with an accomplice, while masked and armed with a wheel brace.
His progress in the community since his release from jail in 2021 had otherwise been reassuring but he was now back in custody on licence until mid-2025.
“He should not have attended that event on that day given the strains that are visibly in that family and have been for many years,” said his barrister, Kim Whittlestone. “His reaction, he fully acknowledges, was totally wrong.”
Judge Nicholas Barker imposed a 16-month jail term. “This was an appalling piece of public disorder,” said Judge Barker. “The way you erupted — which I think is a pertinent phrase — from what really was a disagreement to a display of extreme and sustained violence would have been entirely terrifying to those customers of the Little Arms public house in Cleator.”
