A teenager who glassed a woman three times to the head in a hotel room has been spared custody after a court heard he acted in “excessive self defence”.
David Walsh, 19, of Page Moss Lane, Dovecot, had been drinking alcohol and taking cocaine and ketamine with Imogen Duckers in her room where she had been residing at the Hillcrest Hotel in Widnes in the early morning of Saturday, January 8, when in the words of Ms Duckers “it just then went mad”. At Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, prosecutor Cheryl Mottram told how Ms Duckers said that in the short time she and Walsh were acquainted there had been rows and “several scuffles in which both parties had thrown punches at each other”.
Ms Mottram said a friend of Ms Duckers who was in the room that night said she saw Ms Duckers “becoming more agitated and repeatedly pushing” Walsh and he warned her “not to touch him”. There was a scuffle and Walsh “struck Ms Duckers and she fell to the floor”.
READ MORE: Christmas in Liverpool to be saved as company steps in
She picked up a kettle intending to hit Walsh but put it back, and headed to a wardrobe and where she appeared to place something down the back of her trousers.
Walsh and the witness thought it was a knife but Ms Duckers wouldn’t “provide an explanation” of what she had. Ms Mottram said Ms Duckers grabbed Walsh and she grabbed him back and “they went to the floor”.
She said: “The defendant picked up a glass and struck Ms Duckers three times to the head and then kicked her before leaving.”
A short clip lasting several seconds and filmed on the friend’s phone was played to the court and showed Walsh behind a bed slamming his arm and hand down at something out of sight.
As Walsh left the hotel he told the receptionist: “If the police come looking for me I wasn’t here. That girl upstairs - I think she’s a gangster, I’ve done her in.”
Ms Duckers had suffered bruises to her face and a laceration to the back of her head that had to be glued in hospital. Police arrested Walsh and he gave “no comment” answers in interview.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ms Duckers said she had been in a “dark place” before the incident, which left her feeling “paranoid” and fearing she would encounter Walsh when out.
She said the assault had a “huge impact on her life” and she is receiving help but also “hopes the defendant receives help and assistance for the difficulties he has”.
Ms Mottram said Walsh had one set of previous convictions for affray and possessing a weapon, which the court later heard were from when he was 14.
Walsh had pleaded not guilty to an initial, more serious charge of Section 18 wounding with intent, before pleading guilty at the first opportunity to an alternative count of Section 20 wounding without intent on the grounds of self-defence.
Kate Morley, defending, said Walsh was 18 years old at the time of the assault and “acknowledged and owned up to his wrongdoing”.
She said he was “sorry for what he did, he stated he's sorry he assaulted a lady, that he would never normally dream about doing such a thing”, adding “it was never his intention” to assault Ms Duckers but he was provoked by his victim who was older than him and had “instigated the violence” while he was “repeatedly trying to calm her down”.
Ms Morley added Walsh and the witness thought Ms Duckers had a knife tucked in her waistband. Walsh reacted with “excessive self-defence”.
Ms Morley told the court: “It’s difficult to envisage a case where there’s more provocation.”
She added Walsh had endured personal "traumatic occurrences" in recent years including the loss of his grandmother and one of his friends. In addition the pre-sentence report recommended imposing rehabilitation and unpaid work.
There were tears and sobbing from a woman in the public gallery as Recorder Graham Wells gave his sentencing remarks in which he rebuked Walsh for “going over the top” and his “disgraceful” behaviour with the woman he had known for eight days.
Sentencing Walsh to eight months in a young offenders institution, suspended for two years, plus 20 days of rehabilitation and 100 hours of unpaid work, the judge said he accepted there “had been a degree of provocation” and the victim herself said “it just then went mad”.
He also imposed a restraining order to run indefinitely.
Describing the situation in the hotel room, Recorder Wells said: “The circumstances of that described by the witness are of something that happens all too often: alcohol, ketamine, cocaine and people losing it, and you lost it.
“Now I bear in mind particularly what the witness has suggested that the victim has done and that’s gone to a wardrobe and armed herself with a knife.
“You don’t know whether she did or didn’t but the fact is the witness thought she had and it appears you thought she had and there’s therefore a degree of - a degree of - self-defence, but clearly going over the top.”
Receive our weekly Runcorn and Widnes newsletter and breaking news email alerts by signing up here.
READ NEXT:
Joe Lycett breaks silence after 'shredding £10,000'
Schoolchildren forced to walk past bus stop where man found dead
Jet2 worker fighting for his life after walking home from pub
Girl, 16, gives birth after judge approves caesarean against her wishes
