Drunk smashed a bottle over party host's head (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Convicted drug dealer Hamish Kidd assaulted birthday girl as she tried to protect her son

11:12am Friday 31st August 2012 in News

Drunken Hamish Kidd, 20, hit a woman over the head with a bottle in her own home during a birthday party - and then assaulted one of the guests in the same way.

Kidd, of Querns Lane, Cirencester, committed the two assaults while subject to a suspended jail sentence for cannabis dealing, Gloucester crown court.

He was jailed for a year after he pleaded guilty to assaulting Jane Allen and Jamie Spreadbury causing them both actual bodily harm on 21st April this year.

Judge William Hart told him "People who hit others over the head with bottles, especially if they are females, go to prison.

"You caused an unpleasant cut to Ms Allen and you struck a number of blows to Mr Spreadbury."

Julian Kesner, prosecuting, said Ms Allen was holding a belated birthday party and invited a number of friends and family. Although Kidd did not know her well he was also there because they had a mutual friend.

"People who hit others over the head with bottles, especially if they are females, go to prison.”

Judge William Hart

During the evening he left the party but later returned with a large, powerfully built, mixed race man whose identity is unknown, Mr Kesner said.

Ms Allen's son answered the door to them and without warning the other man hit him, knocking him to the floor, he said.

"He got up and was knocked to the floor a second time. His mother came to intervene and the defendant struck her with a beer bottle, hitting her on the forehead.

"She fell to the ground. As she got up she was aware of blood streaming down her face.

"Fighting started and broke out everywhere. Jamie Spreadbury, a guest at the party, ran to protect Ms Allen's son Paul and he squared up to the unknown male.

"As he started to fight that male the defendant struck him with the beer bottle and knocked him to the ground.

"Mr Spreadbury got back up and for a second time the defendant hit him with the bottle. Some witnesses say he was hit four times in all."

Mr Kesner said both victims needed hospital treatment. Miss Allen had a one and a half inch to two inch long cut down the middle of her forehead into the hairline.

"She has been told it will probably resuilt in a scar," he said. "She also hurt her elbow and wrist when she landed. She had a pre-existing injury to her wrist as a result of an assault last December.

"She says she is now scared to leave her own home.

"Mr Spreadbury had cuts and bruises and also suffered a bad headache."

At the time of the offences Kidd was subject to a 32 weeks suspended jail term imposed last December for cannabis dealing.

Fraser Stewart, defending, said Kidd could not remember anything of the incident at the party but accepted what witnesses said about his behaviour.

"He must have been far more inebriated than he thought he was," said Mr Stewart.

Kidd was going through difficulties in his life at the time of the assault and had also breached his suspended sentence order during that period for the same reason, he said.

"But since the breach he has thrown himself into trying to make something of his life."

If Kidd was not jailed today he would take up a job offer working for his brother's prestigious seafood wholesalers business in Cornwall, Mr Stewart said.

"There is still potential for him to become an upstanding member of the community," he added. "He desperately wants to compensate his victims. He recognises he should not have acted in this way and he recognises the impact he has had on them."

Judge Hart jailed Kidd for eight months on each of the assault charges, to run concurrently, and implemented four months of the suspended sentence consecutively.