A Wetherspoons manager forced his way into a terrified woman's hotel room before collapsing on the stranger's bed.
Callum Shepherd, a shift leader at one of the pub chain's Liverpool city centre branches, was this week spared prison over a drunken rampage which saw him launch fire extinguishers from a sixth floor window at Z Hotel onto the street below. He had also set off a fire alarm during the early hours frenzy, meaning around 100 guests had been evacuated onto North John Street.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the 23-year-old gained a first in biochemistry from Liverpool John Moores University and is now studying for a masters. Shepherd hopes to begin a PHD with the uni, starting later this year.
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The student was described as being from a "good background" with no previous convictions. He wore sunglasses and a face mask in a bid to hide from the cameras as he walked free from court, having been handed a 20-month imprisonment suspended for two years after admitting affray and criminal damage.
Simon Christie, defending Shepherd, said: "The defendant sitting in the dock today nearly a year after this incident is horrified at what he did, as are his parents. If he could, he would apologise to every single person he inconvenienced that night - in particular the woman whose bedroom he encroached upon.
"This whole exercise has been a source of enormous embarrassment and shame to him. He will not appear in the crown courts again and has the making of a very valuable member of the community."
Peter Hussey, prosecuting, told the court how Shepherd - of Cramlington, Northumberland - had been on a night out with friends and continued drinking upon his arrival at the hotel at around 3am on September 14 last year. He was described as being "slightly drunk" at this point, but staff "didn't think it was a problem".
He was served with a single shot of whisky, which he drank in the reception area. The customer ordered another two doubles, which he was told would "be his last".
Shepherd asked the server if there was anywhere else he could carry on his session. He was shown to his room after "stumbling around" and having "difficulty holding himself up" but left the hotel shortly afterwards, returning around 10 minutes later.
The postgraduate then set off a fire alarm on the fourth floor, causing around 100 people to be evacuated onto the street. And Shepherd began kicking in the doors of guests' rooms on the upper floors of the building in their absence.
Evacuees on North John Street heard a crash from above and were "showered" with shards of broken glass after he threw a fire extinguisher from a window of the sixth storey. It was later discovered that the intoxicated guest had hurled two further fire extinguishers which had landed on other parts of the building, including one which had become lodged in a skylight, and had also been tossing them around the hallways.
Around 4.30am, Shepherd forced entry to a female resident's room uninvited as she was going inside. She shouted at him to "get out" as she was "scared and didn't know the drunken stranger's intentions".
He collapsed onto her bed, and she was forced to drag him back out onto the landing. Shortly after 5am, the barman damaged a dry riser - equipment used by fire crews in the event of a blaze - by smashing through a glass panel.
Firefighters shut the road outside while police searched the hotel for the defendant. Officers could not find him and left, but were called back to the scene at around 7am after he was spotted by a fellow guest.
Shepherd was located on a staircase by hotel staff "obviously very, very drunk" and arrested. Interviewed in the evening of the same day, he was "unable to recall what he had been doing".
When shown CCTV footage of his frenzy, he was described as being "aghast at his own actions". The court was played these videos, as well as mobile phone footage of Shepherd throwing one of the fire extinguishers out of a window.
Sentencing, Recorder Eric Lamb said: "The actions that you were carrying out are incomprehensible to anybody in a sober condition, but in your drunken condition you chose to behave in a way that caused huge inconvenience and fear to the occupants of that hotel. From your scientific background, you can anticipate the sort of impact a fire extinguisher could have had if it made contact with any of the hotel occupants below.
"You are of positive good character and you have demonstrated what I accept is genuine remorse. You have demonstrated a willingness to rehabilitate yourself and to start being a successful member of society."
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