Judge tells student to pay bill for pub assault by cutting down on beer

A student in Hartlepool who tried to get out of paying compensation to a man he punched in a pub brawl has been told to find the money by missing out on two pints of beer a week. The classic saloon bar line of 'How come they can still afford drink/fags/a car?' was taken literally by Judge Peter Armstrong after 19-year-old Anthony Davidson was convicted of unlawful wounding.

The attack in Middlesbrough left a local man, 24-year-old John Pawley, needing stitches in two mouth wounds. He also lost £250 in wages from missing work plus two-and-a-half stone through being unable to eat properly for several weeks. He hadn't exactly been an angel. Middlesbrough Crown court heard that Pawley drunkenly stumbled into Davidson's table earlier in the evening, spilling drinks.



But the prosecutor, Jacqueline Edwards, said that the attack happened subsequently outside the pub where Pawley was smoking a cigarette, and was unprovoked. Judge Armstrong told Davidson: "The injuries you caused were excessive for self-defence." It was at this point that the student's barrister made a wrong move by saying that Davidson couldn't afford the £500 compensation and suggesting that it should be paid instead by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

The judge replied: "Even students have an income. He can pay at two pints of beer a week. I don't see why the burden should fall wholly on the taxpayer." Davidson faces just under two years on rations, with payment imposed at £5 a week plus 100 hours of unpaid community work as punishment for the offence.