£1,500 fine for man who momentarily "lost his cool"

Saturday 21 October 2017

A 26-year-old man who pushed another man so hard that he fell backwards and fractured his wrist, in what was described as a momentary loss of control, has been fined £1,500 and asked to pay £500 to the victim by the Magistrate's Court.

Kyle Rea pushed the victim after he tried to intervene in an argument between Rea's and another man.

The Court heard that the incident took place in the early hours of 24 September at the crossing between the bus station and the Pomme d'Or Hotel. Police officers were alerted by an altercation between two men and saw a third one trying to intervene. The Court heard that Rea pushed the victim with both hands so hard that it lifted him off the ground. The victim then fell backwards and fractured his wrist. 

Advocate Jeremy Haywood, who was defending Rea, described the incident as "an unpremeditated outburst which lasted a very short period of time." He said: "The seriousness of the charge lies entirely on the seriousness of the injury which was clearly unintended." He told Court that Rea had never been in court before and handed out letters of references who showed the incident was "clearly out of character."

Handing out the sentence, Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris warned Rea against "single punch homicide." He said: "It is when someone does something silly like this. They punch someone, they fall backwards, bang their hand and they die. You lost your cool. A fractured wrist is a serious injury. Sometimes these things may go way beyond what you might have thought. This was a single moment when you lost control but you have to understand sometimes this things may have major consequences. This does not fit into any specific categories for sentencing. You clearly didn’t intent to cause injury."

The Assistant Magistrate fined Rea to a £1,500 fine, which if unpaid will lead to a six-week prison sentence. He also made a compensation order of £500 for the victim.