‘Disgrace’ of pizza parlour attack

 A 23-year-old who attacked two men in an Oldham town centre pizza parlour because he thought they were staring at him has been told he was fortunate not have seriously injured or even killed one of them.

Lewis Sherrington, who had been drinking, picked on the pair after they sat down for a meal with friends at the restaurant in Yorkshire Street last September.

Mark Angus, prosecuting, said he confronted Simon Gray and Simon Lomas, asking what they were looking at. He then threw a piece of pizza which hit one of the men on the back.

Sherrington then punched Mr Lomas in the neck.

A scuffle followed during which Mr Gray had his head banged against a wall, then forced down onto a metal counter.

Sherrington then went outside shouting: “You don’t know who I am. I’m the big man around here.”

He later told police that the men had been staring at him and claimed he had acted in self defence after they attacked him.

Mr Gray said in a statement to police that the incident had a profound effect on him and that he had not known at the time, whether his attacker could have been armed with a knife or a gun.

He said: “What should have been a nice meal out with friends, turned into a nightmare.”

Caroline Smith, defending, said that Sherrington, of Perth Avenue, Chadderton, was genuinely full of remorse and fully accepted what he done.

Sherrington, who pleaded guilty to two charges of assault, was given a 12-month community order and has been ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

He has also been told to take part in a programme aimed at helping him deal with his alcohol problems.

Judge Stephen Dodds told him: “Your behaviour was disgraceful, though the injuries suffered by these young men were mercifully slight. You could easily have found yourself facing a charge of manslaughter or murder.

“It is only by good luck that your blows did not cause far more serious injuries than they did.”