Shocking violence erupted on a Swansea street in the middle of the afternoon as a gang of a men ran amok and fought with weapons including a hammer.
At one stage one of the participants went into a nearby chip shop to grab knives for use in the brawl.
Despite the incident being caught on CCTV and on the mobile phone of a passing motorist only one of those involved in the mass disturbance has been identified by police. He had only been out of prison for a matter of weeks at the time having been released halfway through an eight-year sentence for a series of knifepoint robberies.
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Swansea Crown Court heard the offending took place on December 3, 2020, and began with a disturbance at the CK/Nisa shop in the Cwmbwrla area of Swansea.
Hannah George, prosecuting, said at around 1pm an intoxicated Alun Northcott went into the shop and was being "rude and aggressive". He sat on one of the freezers and when asked to get off began calling staff derogatory names. Shoppers in the store supported the shop workers and the 29-year-old began challenging them to a fight.
Northcott was eventually escorted out of the premises but he hung around outside and when one of the shoppers who had challenged him came of the store the defendant followed him to his car.
The court heard an altercation then developed which saw Northcott kick the wing mirrors off the victim's vehicle before jumping on the bonnet, roof, and windscreen and smashing the windscreen with his knees. Northcott then picked up a piece of wood and struck the car owner to the chest before making off.
The court heard the defendant was involved in another incident later that afternoon around half a mile away in Llangyfelach Road.
Miss George said at 3pm an altercation took place involving a group of men – one of whom was armed with a hammer. During the incident Northcott run into the nearby Hik's chip shop and restaurant and grabbed cutlery knives for use in the fight and the participants were "weaving in and out of the traffic" as they confronted each other. At one stage one of the men threw the hammer at the defendant and he retrieved it and returned it in kind.
The brawling ended when Northcott went to the floor and was repeatedly kicked by members of the group, one of whom arrived on the scene on a motorbike, before the gang dispersed.
Police soon arrived on the scene and found an "intoxicated and agitated" Northcott who was taken to hospital for a check-up. The prosecutor said when later arrested and cautioned he replied: "Tell the judge to stick his wig so far up his f*****g a***." In his subsequent interview the defendant accepted he had been abusive in the shop but said his behaviour had been justified and said after leaving the store he had taken heroin and then been attacked by a man on a motorbike.
Miss George said it was "of note" that none of the other males involved in the incident had been identified by the police.
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Alun Roy Northcott, formerly of Ethel Court, Canton, Cardiff, but now of no fixed abode, admitted criminal damage to a value more than £5,000, assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) on the shopper, and possession of a bladed article. He has 27 previous convictions for 45 offences including eight for offences of violence and four for possessing knives or firearms. In 2011 he was sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders' institution for inflicting grievous bodily harm and in 2016 was sentenced to eight years in prison for three robberies and possession of a bladed article. He was out of prison on licence for this matter when he offended in Swansea and following his arrest was recalled back to prison to serve the rest of the robbery sentence. That term of imprisonment expires in February 2024.
Hilary Roberts, for Northcott, said his client had been out of prison for around three weeks at the time of the incident and ended up in Swansea after problems with the hostel in Cardiff which probation wanted him to stay in.
He said the defendant was having issues seeing his 13-year-old daughter and on the day in question had consumed far too much alcohol. The barrister said following the shop incident "there was a pursuit by a number of people" which led to the scenes seen in Llangyfelach Road, adding that the others involved "were not exactly wallflowers" and "it would have been easy for the police to identify them but they did not".
Judge Geraint Walters said the CCTV footage shown to court was another illustration that there were people in the community who "live a life of lawlessness" without any respect for other people or for the law. He said the scenes in Llangyfelach Road were "akin to people driving through a safari park where wild animals run out in front of them" – though he added that animals are probably better behaved.
With one-quarter discounts for his guilty pleas Northcott was sentenced to a total of two years in prison comprising three months for the criminal damage to the car, nine months for the ABH on the shop customer, and 12 months for possession of the knives all to run concurrently.
The prosecution offered no evidence for a charge of affray the defendant was also facing and the judge recorded a formal not guilty verdict for that matter
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