A TEENAGER has been left without any sense of taste or smell after suffering a head injury when he was pushed over during a late-night incident in Stratford town centre.
And his 27-year-old attacker Michael Hardy, of Hertford Street, Stratford, who had initially become involved as a peacemaker, has been jailed for ten months by a judge at Warwick Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Prosecutor Richard Gibbs said 18-year-old Tai Clark had gone to the Oddfellows pub on November 9 last year to collect his girlfriend, who had gone there with her cousin.
There was an altercation in the pub, which continued in the street after Mr Clark left, and Hardy stepped in between him and a young woman who was acting aggressively towards him.
Mr Clark walked away, but the girl followed, and Hardy again stood between them and asked her what she wanted to happened, to which the girl responded: “Him to get punched or battered.”
Mr Gibbs said the next thing Mr Clark recalled was being on the ground being tended to by police and an ambulance crew.
But CCTV coverage showed Hardy had turned and pushed him to the face, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head.
Mr Clark, whose head was bleeding, had a 1.5cm contusion to the left parietal lobe of his brain and a haematoma to the right of his brain, and Mr Gibbs said the prognosis was unclear.
As a result of the injuries to his brain, he has suffered memory loss and has no sense of taste or smell and a degree of deafness in his left ear – and by the time of the trial in August had still not been able to return to his college course.
Hardy had remained in the area, and when he was arrested nearby he denied culpability, saying he had simply been trying to break up a confrontation.
Mr Gibbs said Hardy had a number of convictions including battery in 2008 and 2012, and wounding with intent using a bottle in 2010 for which he had been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Paul O’Keefe, defending, said it had been an impulsive act, and as soon as making contact Hardy turned and began to walk away.
Jailing Hardy, Recorder David Crigman QC told him: “You did not intend those injuries to be caused, but it was your act which led to the chain of events which resulted in them being caused.
“You show a propensity to be quick to violence, and that is what happened on this occasion. I’m quite satisfied the offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.”
