Drunk man threw punches at funeral wake
A man who described himself as an aggressive drunk attended a funeral wake and ended up punching a man three times.
Lee Thornton later went to the home of the bereaved to post a letter of apology.
But when he was accused of stealing cash from the house, he returned with a gym dumbbell and assaulted another man, Mold Crown Court heard.
Thornton, 24, of Berwyn Mill Cottages, Llangollen, admitted two charges of common assault and possessing the dumbbell as an offensive weapon.
He received a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.
The court heard how the funeral wake had been at The Aussie Rooster pub at Trevor, near Llangollen, in September last year.
The first assault took place there. Thornton made a comment to John Mathews, barged into him and punched him three times, said prosecutor Emmalyne Downing.
The defendant was asked to leave, so he went home, wrote a letter of apology to Robert Edwards and his wife Hayley, whose father had died, and took it to their home at the village of Glyn Ceiriog.
Mr Edwards later returned home, found the letter and discovered money had been taken from a window sill. He thought the defendant had taken it and sent him a text challenging him and asking for the money back. That angered Thornton who returned to Mr Edwards' home with the dumbbell.
Arrested and interviewed, he described himself as "an aggressive drunk".
Henry Hills, defending, said that his client admitted being involved in the assault at the wake. He was still drunk when he took the dumbbell with him to the house later after being wrongly accused of taking cash.
