Shrewsbury nightclub doorman avoids jail after plea from student victim who lost her two front teeth

Student Cara Grimes, who suffered facial injuries and lost two front teeth when ejected from a club, made an emotional appeal from the public gallery at Shrewsbury Crown Court.

As Judge Jonathan Gosling told defendant William Evans he was being jailed for 20 months for an offence of causing grievous bodily harm a tearful Miss Grimes intervened.

"Is it necessary for him to be jailed. I don't want him to go to prison, especially if he has been bullied," she said.

Minutes earlier the court had been told that 23-year-old Evans had learning difficulties and had previously been a victim of bullying.

Judge Gosling said that having listened to Miss Grimes' appeal he accepted that jailing Evans would probably add to her anguish.

He told Evans he was "a very lucky man" that the victim had asked the court to show mercy and he suspended the 20-month prison sentence for a year.

Evans, a self-employed tractor driver, of Westbury, near Shrewsbury, had pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on Miss Grimes in January last year.

Judge Gosling told Evans the victim had been drunk and the defendant was a large and powerful young man and that he had failed to go to her aid when she was left on the ground bleeding from her face.

"You were trained as a doorman to show both self-control and restraint when dealing with people in these situations.

"The victim was vulnerable at the time but I accept you acted on the spur of the moment and did not intend the serious injuries that were caused," he said.

The court heard that Miss Grimes was at the Beach nightclub in Hills Lane on January 27 last year and had twice been ejected for being drunk.

Mr John Oates, prosecuting, said she had tried to get back into the club under cover of groups of people entering the premises and was seen by the defendant in the foyer.

He said Evans grabbed her by the arm and swung her round and out of the club and she fell down steps onto her face causing nasty and unpleasant injuries.

Miss Grimes read an impact statement to the court in which she said had scaring from cuts to her face and had lost two front teeth and had spent £1,400 having the teeth crowned which, over time, would need to be replaced at further cost.

She said it left her self-conscious and suffering anxiety and she was unable to continue her university studies and she had not wanted to socialise and she was reminded of what happened every day.

Mr Stephen Scully, for Evans, said his client had written to the court offering a "humble apology" and regretted what happened and that he had acted instinctively when Miss Grimes had tried to get back into the club on a third occasion.

He said Evans had learning difficulties and had been a victim of bullying but had become an accomplished tractor driver working on local farms.

Mr Scully said his client had worked as a doorman during the winter months for over five years and had a security industry licence, but was aware that this line of work had now ended.