Suspended jail for attack on student

A MAN kicked and stamped on a college student during an unprovoked attack, Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, heard yesterday.

Thomas Cooke (21) attacked Jack Mooney (18), who accidentally bumped into him in the grounds of Oldham College.

Mr Mooney suffered cuts, bruises and swelling to his right eye after the assault on September 25 last year.

Cooke, of Course View, Oldham, was jailed for nine months, suspended for two years, with a supervision order for 12 months.

He must complete 250 hours of unpaid work and was made the subject of a three-month curfew order. He admitted an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The judge, Mr Recorder John Corless, told Cooke, “You were unreasonable and threatening. You punched him to the head and face.

“This was wholly unacceptable, and wholly unjustified, and is an assault which clearly passes the custody threshold.

“I take into account the fact that this was not a premeditated attack, but rather you losing your temper in a wholly unjustified manner.”

Earlier, Ms Vanessa Thomson, prosecuting, said Mr Mooney, a student at the college, accidentally bumped into the defendant and apologised. Cooke told him to watch where he was going, but Mr Mooney didn’t quite catch what was said and asked him to repeat it.

Cooke tried to lunge at Mr Mooney and was held back, but he eventually pushed the student to the ground, punching, kicking and stamping on him.

Ms Thomson said : “This was witnessed by a number of other students who all gave the same account of the defendant punching, kicking and stamping Mr Mooney on the ground.

“Mr Mooney was very much the victim of an unprovoked assault. Eye-witnesses described the defendant as aggressive and spoiling for a fight, just 15 minutes before the incident.”

Mr Mooney suffered bumps on both sides of his head, cuts and grazes to the face, and had bruising and swelling around his right eye.

Cooke was arrested a week later and told police he had gone to the college to enrol that day. He was trying to get phone numbers from some girls in the quadrangle area of the college grounds when the incident happened.

He claimed that Mr Mooney had spat at him and that they had both fallen to the ground during the fight. However, he did acknowledge that he may have stood on Mr Mooney’s head.

Mr John Potter, defending, said, “I have to concede that when the shoe is used that is a significant aggravating feature. He has additional responsibilities — the birth of his first child — which he takes very seriously.”