A man kicked a stranger in the head and stole his phone after a drunken scuffle because he asked him for money, a court has heard.
Darren Cluff, 35, of no fixed abode, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday via video link after pleading guilty to one count of robbery and one count of assault causing actual bodily harm. Zahra Baqri, prosecuting, detailed that at around 12.30am on February 18 in the Paradise Street area of Liverpool One, a scuffle ensued after Cluff repeatedly asked Kerr McLernon for money.
She said that the victim had become annoyed at Cluff repeatedly asking him for money, as he had been “begging” in the area that night. CCTV of the incident was shown in court, and displayed Cluff following the victim, asking for money, before Mr McLernon pushed Cluff away from him.
READ MORE: Thomas Cashman thinks jury were 'all born yesterday', prosecutor claims
Mr McLernon can then be seen urinating and the defendant pushes him before the men grapple and fall to the floor.
The complainant punched the defendant and Cluff hit Mr McLernon on the head with a plastic bottle. The defendant got to his feet before kicking the victim repeatedly and stamping on his head whilst he was on the ground.
Cluff, who had also been drinking alcohol, then “used force” to grab the victim’s mobile phone, despite attempts from Mr McLernon to stop him. Liverpool One staff came over shortly after to offer assistance.
Ms Baqri detailed that the victim had travelled to Liverpool from Scotland to watch a football match, and had paid “a lot of money to do so”. Mr McLernon said he had been drinking a lot, and didn't remember leaving the last pub he visited, but recalled waking up in A&E after the attack.
Mr McLernon suffered a laceration to the left eyebrow and a concussion. Cluff was arrested and searched in the town centre where the victim’s phone was recovered, before being interviewed later that day at 3pm.
During the police interview, Cluff said the complainant started the fight, stating: “He attacked me, he attacked me, I robbed him before he robbed me.” When asked more specifically about kicking the victim in the head when he was lying on the ground, he answered no comment.
A victim personal statement written by Mr McLernon was read by the prosecution, and detailed that because of the injury he missed the football match and spent the afternoon in his hotel suffering from concussion. He said the incident “knocked his confidence completely when out socialising”, and left him questioning why it happened to him.
Mr Baqri also detailed a similar incident in January 2016, where Cluff and another male engaged in a fight in a superstore car park. A witness saw him pull the other male to the ground and kick him numerous times.
Cluff was handed a 16 month sentence of imprisonment for assault occasioning actual bodily harm in December 2016. The 35-year-old has 45 previous convictions for 70 offences dating back to 2003, nine of which are assaults.
John Weate, defending, reiterated that the physical altercation did begin with Mr McLernon pushing Cluff, but agreed his client went beyond excessive self-defence. He said: “The complainant may have been fortunate not to be prosecuted for his part.
“He was the first one to offer violence by pushing the defendant in quite a strong way. “Then after a minute or so where the defendant is following him, the complainant, I would say quite viciously, attacks the defendant himself using a shod foot as part of that assault.
“It would have to be conceded that during that part of the incident, the defendant not only did defend himself, he had to defend himself. “However he then moves beyond excessive self defence and carries on to assault the complainant in the way we have seen.”
Mr Weate added: “The way in which this incident started came from the complainant with the assault on the defendant and it moved on from there.” He also argued that the robbery was “perhaps even as an afterthought”.
In sentencing, Judge Brian Cummings KC said: “You, by your own admission, were begging on the night, and this appears to be how you and the victim, as he was to become, came into contact. “It is said that you were pestering him, but the footage shows you following him a short distance, before he turns and pushes you away with some force.
“You could, and in my view should have, walked away at that point. “Instead you went into a corner and while he was urinating against a wall, you pushed him in the back.”
He continued: “Once he finished urinating he turned away from the shop front, and he pushed you again but with some force that you fell, kicked you when you were on the ground, that then resulted in a scuffle.
“The victim then ended up on the ground, and this is where it gets really nasty because you are seen to kick him to the head and stamp on his head several times and on separate occasions, in the sense that you seem to kick and or stamp on him, move away a step or two and then come back and do it again, and that happens two or three times.”
Judge Cummings also highlighted the “distinct parallels with the present offence not least because it involved you stamping or kicking the victims head on a number of occasions”, to the 2016 assault. For assault causing actual bodily harm, Cluff was sentenced to two years imprisonment, and for robbery, he was sentenced to eight months, to be served consecutively.
READ NEXT
Jury sent out to decide fate of Thomas Cashman
Man who discovered James Bulger's body dies in police custody
Woman dies after falling from city centre car park
Paul O'Grady's final Instagram post says everything about TV star
Couple on £99 Wowcher Mystery Holiday abandon hotel after one hour
