Community service for “unprovoked” head-butt

Wednesday 14 August 2019

A 20-year-old man has been handed community service for drunkenly head-butting a stranger outside a nightclub.

Appearing in the Magistrate's Court, Luis Oliveira Pereira (20) was sentenced to 120 hours’ community service, a six month probation order, as well as being banned from bars and pubs for three months after the “unprovoked” attack.

Legal Adviser Simon Crowder, appearing for the prosecution, told the Court that the "grave and criminal" assault took place in the early hours of 30 June this year when the victim left Rojo’s nightclub and was standing at West’s Centre with a group of friends. 

Pictured: The victim had just left Rojo's when he was attacked by Luis Pereira.

The Court heard that the defendant “just started joining in the conversation and, almost out of nowhere, [Pereira] said to [the victim], ‘You speak to the wrong person’, and head-butted him.”

Mr Crowder added that the victim “wasn’t expecting the attack”, and that “it took him entirely by surprise.”

The head-butt hit the man on his nose and eyebrow, causing a wound requiring five stitches.  

Mr Crowder told the Court that the “scarring will be permanent”, but this was later contested by Pereira’s lawyer, Advocate Sarah Dale. She argued that there was “no evidence” to support this, and urged the Court “not to speculate” in this regard.

The incident was caught on CCTV, which was shown to Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris, who was presiding over the sentencing hearing.

Pictured: The case was heard in the Magistrate's Court.

Defending Pereira, Advocate Dale told the Court that her client “feels terrible and has a constant feeling of guilt” as a result of the incident. 

“He realises that behaving in this way has not got him anywhere,” she explained.

Advocate Dale emphasised that her client had pleaded ‘guilty’ to the offence at the earliest opportunity and that he is “of good character.”

“There is a different side to him than this offence would suggest,” the defence lawyer urged.

Noting that Pereira didn’t have any “previous public order or violence offences”, the Assistant Magistrate said he would take into account a background report compiled by the Probation Service as well as the points made by Advocate Dale when considering his sentence. 

He subsequently imposed a 120-hour community service order in conjunction with a six-month probation order, and a three-month exclusion order from licensed premises. 

Assistant Magistrate Harris also ordered Pereira to pay £1,200 in compensation to his victim for loss of earnings, medical costs and for the suffering he endured as a result of the assault.