5:30pm Friday 3rd August 2012
By Chris Gregory
A DRUNKEN yob vandalised bunting after Jubilee celebrations and then assaulted a man who tried to stop him.
Daniel Belcher, of Pyotts Hill, Old Basing, pleaded guilty to charges of assault and of criminal damage to property at North Hampshire Magistrates’ Court in Winchester.
Mrs Clare Hartman, prosecuting, said it was just after midnight on The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday of Tuesday, June 5 that the 20-year-old was walking past the address, in Crown Crescent,
Old Basing, having been to a party and then a pub.
She said he had downed around 10 or 11 pints and was drunk.
She said the victim, Daniel Baker, saw Belcher pulling his bunting down outside his home in Crown Crescent and approached him, asking what he was doing.
Belcher, a bricklayer, then attacked Mr Baker “without any provocation”, striking him in the head, and knocking him to the ground.
Mr Baker was left with a cut above his left eye, which required a stitch, cuts to his left elbow and nose, bruising to the chest and cuts to other parts of his body when he fell to the ground.
In his statement, Mr Baker said he thought he passed out after the attack.
Mrs Hartman said: “The defendant did admit the offence. He said he had been to a party and the pub with two friends. He accepted it was not in self-defence – he did it because he was under the
influence of alcohol.”
Belcher, who represented himself in court, has one previous conviction for drink-driving in 2010.
Belcher told the magistrates: “I am sorry for what I have done.” He said he was seeing a doctor in a bid to reduce his drinking.
Presiding magistrate Owen Collins sentenced Belcher to an 18-month community order, with 200 hours of unpaid work.
He also ordered him to pay compensation to Mr Baker of £250 for the assault and £30 for criminal damage. He was also ordered to pay £85 in costs.
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