Violence erupted in a Huddersfield bar after a group associated with football match violence confronted some other customers celebrating a birthday, a court heard.
Tony Kelbrick, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday some of those linked to the Huddersfield Young Casuals as they were known had earlier attended the Derby County v Huddersfield game on February 2, 2013.
They would orchestrate violence around football matches where Huddersfield were playing and on that day several had been ejected from the game then spent time drinking on a coach before returning to their home town.
They then joined others in the Verve Bar on Byram Street where a group of eight young men, some studying locally with friends from Lancashire, were celebrating one of their birthdays.
Mr Kelbrick said around 10pm the Huddersfield Young Casuals group began to congregate near the others, some partly hiding their faces and began taunting them with comments such as “come on then, let’s have it” and “do you all want it”.
One of the Lancashire group then threw a pre-emptive first punch and “following that it all kicked off,” he said.
CCTV showed punches and kicks, bottles and chairs being thrown and used as weapons. By the time the violence ended £675 damage had been caused. All eight of the other group had some injuries, mainly minor, although one had a two inch gash on the back of his head.
Carl Kingsley, representing Gary Floyd and Jonathan Patterson, two of four defendants before the court admitting affray, said the “video evidence is frankly horrific” but in the years since they had changed their lives.
It was more than 12 months before they were charged and they had faced considerable delay since.
He said Floyd was now a father of a one-year-old child and his girlfriend was expecting again next year. He had employment and was not shown wielding any weapon on the night concerned.
Patterson was in a different position to other defendants since he had a previous conviction for affray but he “no longer goes out drinking, doesn’t mix with the people in the dock, doesn’t go to football and concentrates on his family.”
Kenton Sargent, for Adam Roys, said he too was not one of those using a weapon but accepted he contributed by being in the group and added: “He has now established a good life for himself, he is self employed and last year’s turnover was £50,000 and he hopes to do better.”
Michael Sisson-Pell for Jonathan See said he was the person who was first attacked by the Lancashire group and reacted in self-defence but accepted it then went far beyond that and he then “acted outrageously.”
Patterson, 26 of Belton Street, Moldgreen was jailed for 12 months; See, 39 of Alma Drive, Dalton was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for 18 months with 200 hours unpaid work; Floyd, 24 of Sorbus Way, Lepton, was given a six month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with 200 hours work and Roys, 37 of Crosland Road, Oakes, was given six months in prison suspended for 18 months with 150 hours unpaid work.
Sentencing them Judge Penelope Belcher said the CCTV footage captured their appalling “gratuitous violence” when their group had deliberately goaded the Lancashire group.
She accepted that not all of them had used weapons such as bottles or chairs and that others involved had never been identified but said the prison sentence for Patterson had to be immediate because of his record.
