A glass ashtray was used as a weapon, when a Taranaki man took exception to being refused service due to his level of intoxication. (File Photo)
A glass ashtray shattered on impact when it made contact with a man’s head during a brawl instigated by a drunken patron of a Taranaki pub.
Simon Gordon Wallis was drinking with his brother in the smokers’ area of the Hairy Dog Sports Bar on Inglewood’s Rata St about 10.45pm on October 1.
After the bar manager refused to serve Wallis because of his drunken behaviour, the defendant became angry and verbally abusive towards the woman, the summary of facts told the New Plymouth District Court on Thursday.
Her efforts to calm Wallis down did not work and another bar patron intervened, which appeared to make things worse.
“A large fight ensued between most patrons in the smokers’ area,” the summary of facts said.
ANDY JACKSON/Stuff
Simon Wallis will re-appear for sentencing on January 25, after pleading guilty to a violent assault at an Inglewood bar. (File Photo)
After the parties separated, Wallis continued to lash out, and grabbed a female friend of the assault victim.
During the ensuing tussle, Wallis picked up a glass ashtray from a nearby table and used it to whack the victim on the left side of the head.
The ashtray smashed into pieces, which caused cuts to the victim’s head.
After the assault, Wallis and his brother were pushed into the outside area of the bar and locked out.
The drunken violence followed a spree of window smashing Wallis carried out in Inglewood in the early hours of September 18.
A highly intoxicated and aggressive Wallis was on Rata St about 12.45am, when he started to kick and punch the glass windowpanes and door at Xpressions Takeaways.
Marion van Dijk/Stuff
Police arrested Wallis after a spate of window smashing in Inglewood in the early hours of September 18. (File Photo)
The safety glass of the front door shattered as a result.
Wallis then walked to Richmond St, where he picked up several large rocks and threw them into a large glass pane of a building under construction.
He then returned to Rata St and smashed the front window of the Govett Quilliam law office. Wallis was arrested a short time later.
On Thursday, the 26-year-old appeared in the court and pleaded guilty to assaulting a person with a blunt instrument and three charges of wilful damage.
He is due to be sentenced on January 25.
