A drunk convicted drug dealer attacked a security guard outside Rock City in Nottingham city centre. Nottingham Crown Court heard how James Handley was just three months into a two-year suspended sentence when he punched his victim after being refused entry to the Talbot Street venue.
Then, when the police arrived and tried to arrest the 23-year-old, he bit one of the officers to the arm. A search at the police station found him to be carrying cocaine and three months earlier he was handed a chance to avoid jail when he ran from officers in West Bridgford, was caught and messages on his phone proved he was offering drugs for sales, including one reference to £10,000.
Deferring sentence for six months, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: “You have not been entirely honest with me in the few times we have seen each other and I am not particularly impressed by that.
“At the moment you are living in a pigsty, you are not looking after yourself and you are on the verge of dropping back over the edge. I don’t give chances lightly and you are really on thin ice but I don’t want you to slip through.
“Because if you do, you will get two years for the drugs and probably three or four months for this. I will be very sorry if you don’t take this chance, I won’t regret it but you will. Don’t throw it away now, just try and off you go.”
In November of last year, Handley, of East Leake, was handed a two-year jail term, suspended for two years by the same judge for offences of possession with intent to supply class A and B drugs.
On that occasion, the same court was told how he was chased by police in Stamford Road, caught and was found with cocaine and cannabis at his home. This week, Handley’s sentencing hearing was told how he was part of a group trying to get into Rock City in the early hours of February 7, this year.
Eunice Gedzah, prosecuting, said: “They were refused entry as the security guards were trying to eject somebody. The victim looked at the defendant and later described that he looked back at him strangely, as if he was under the influence of something.
“He was then hit by the defendant with a single punch which made contact with his face and eye. Officers arrived and while he was being detained he bit one of them to the arm.”
Mrs Gedzah said in custody a small amount of cocaine was recovered from Handley, of Osier Fields, during a search. He pleaded guilty to common assault and assault of an emergency worker and has three previous convictions for eight offences, the prosecutor said.
Bianca Brasoveanu, mitigating, asked for her client to be the subject of a six-month alcohol tag until he is brought back before the court at the end of November and sentenced.
Source – Nottingham Post
