A former boxer who caused mayhem at a Merseyside pub told a young barmaid at the premises to “call me when you turn 18”.
Joshua Kehoe was one of two men who rampaged through a Rainhill pub last year, injuring several people in an act of unprovoked violence. Kehoe, now 28, was a boxer who once fought in an event at the then ECHO Arena in 2018 but he and George Harper are now behind bars after a series of assaults on a number of staff and customers at the Manor Farm pub in the early hours of May 30 last year.
Yet Liverpool Crown Court heard that even in the time before the pair turned violent, Kehoe began to cause issues with others at the pub by continuing to flirt with a 17 year old barmaid even after she told him she wasn't yet an adult.
READ MORE: Pair rampaged through pub battering landlord, staff and customers
Nick Cockrell, prosecuting, said the men, who both worked as security staff, arrived at the pub during an 18th birthday party which their boss was providing security for, though they were not working themselves. Mr Cockrell said: “The males sat at a table in the bar area and a young female member of the bar staff went to serve them drinks.
“They bought a round of drinks and whilst she was taking the order, one of the males, Kehoe was, for want of a better expression, “chatting up” [the staff member]. She was polite to him but told him that she was only 17 years of age, albeit that she was due to turn 18 a few weeks later.”
The court heard he asked for her number but she refused. Mr Cockrell said: “A few minutes later, Kehoe asked [the staff member] if she could phone a taxi for him. She used her phone to type in the number and handed it to Mr Yates. He took the phone and put his own number into her phone, he sent himself a text message, and then told her to text him when she was 18.”
Mr Cockrell said despite Kehoe’s behaviour, it was not this incident which sparked trouble at the pub. It was only later that the landlord’s wife said she saw Kehoe going through the 17-year-old staff member’s bag, as well as her own, that trouble began. Kehoe was never charged with an offence relating to the bags but Mr Cockrell said the accusation started an argument that eventually saw Kehoe and Harper kicked out of the pub.
They then went back in to carry out a series of assaults, first against the landlord and a staff member and then against some customers. The court heard the landlord, who was battered with a wine bottle during Kehoe and Harper's attack and later knocked unconscious, handed back his premises licence after the incident and now no longer operates the pub.
Kehoe, of Cretan Road, Liverpool, was jailed for four years. Harper, of Holland Street, was jailed for two years and eight months.
