A DOORMAN with a criminal record that includes violence has admitted a assaulting a man outside a Carlisle city centre bar.
At the city’s magistrates’ court, Carl Armstrong, 38, also admitted using threatening behaviour and damaging a police cell by deliberately urinating in it after he was detained.
He was not on duty when he committed the assault – but he had come into the city centre to offer his services because one bar was so busy, the court heard.
Prosecutor George Shelley outlined the facts.
He said the trouble flared on the night of December 8 last year, prompting police to attend the area outside the Bocata Bar in Lowther Street between 1am and 2am.
The victim had been in the street when he was attacked by an “unknown male,” who punched the man to the side of the head, said Mr Shelley. “This caused the man to slightly lose consciousness, and to have a nosebleed.”
Armstrong, of Jaysmith Close, Carlisle, was arrested after he was identified from CCTV footage.
At the city’s Durranhill Police HQ, the officers spoke to Armstrong over the cell intercom following his arrest and detention. In that conversation, Armstrong requested to be moved to “a cleaner cell.”
When this was refused, he stood up and urinated in the cell. He then complained about having stomach pains and as he was being moved, he became verbally abusive, making an offensive comment to a detention officer.
Mr Shelley outlined the defendant’s criminal history, saying he was last in court in 2019 for a battery – one of five offences of violence on his record.
There were also ten public order offences.
Adele Graham, defending, said the court would benefit from the preparation of a pre-sentence report on Armstrong, looking at whether mental health has contributed to his offending.
Asked whether he was a doorman, Miss Graham told District Judge Matthew Wallace: “He is a doorman but he wasn’t on duty that night. He’d come down to offer assistance because the bar was small and very busy.”
The District Judge ordered a background report and adjourned sentencing until April 4. The defendant was released on unconditional bail. As he left court, he looked towards the press in court and muttered an obscenity.
Source – News and Star
