Scarborough teenager escapes prison after breaking off-duty police officer's jaw and eye socket

Matty Davies, 18, was with a group of rowdy young men who were “intoxicated by alcohol and substances” and causing trouble outside Marley’s bar in South Cliff, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Kelly Clarke said the victim, a named police officer who was off duty and with friends, had just left Marley’s when violence flared at about 9.30pm on July 1 last year.

One of the victim’s friends was punched by a man in Davies’s group whereupon the off-duty officer went to intervene.

The victim, who lives and works in Scarborough, “pushed away” one of the men in the drunken group who was described as a “raging lunatic” by one witness.

That man threatened to stab the victim and said: “Do you know who I am? I will shank you up, bro.”

The victim told the named man he was a police officer and would be going round to his home the following day, hoping that this would “control the aggression”, but it only “made it worse”.

It was then, while the victim was focusing his attention on the “raging lunatic”, that Davies, a powerfully built man, sidled up to him and punched him in the side of the face, “causing his jaw to crack”.

At this point, a named female witness pulled up in her car with her young child and saw the victim being punched by Davies, with enough force that the victim “fell into her car”.

As the brawl intensified and despite the victim coming under attack himself, he tried to shield the woman but then Davies punched him a second time in the back of the head.

The victim, who suffered a broken eye socket and cheekbone, went inside the bar to ask for CCTV footage of the incident but then Davies came up to him again and said: “let’s go for round two.”

“He was walking towards (the victim) with a clenched fist,” said Ms Clarke.

“Another of (Davies’s) group was holding a bottle, causing (the victim) to fear he would be hit with a weapon.”

Davies ran away when police arrived, but the victim took a photo of him as he made good his escape.

“The defendant was not arrested until some weeks later following police enquiries,” added Ms Clarke.

Davies, of Friargate, Scarborough, appeared for sentence today (Nov 7) after pleading guilty to wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent.

In a statement read out by the prosecution, the victim said he had suffered “extreme pain to the left side of my face, fractures to my eye socket and jaw”.

“It affected my ability to speak to people because my jaw seized up,” he added.

This made it very difficult to carry out his policing duties.

He had been placed on restricted duties which “hampered my development at work as I had been delayed in performing active duty”.

He had suffered sleep deprivation because it was “extremely uncomfortable” to lay on his side.

This had turned him into a “short-tempered, miserable person” which had affected his family and friends.

“My eye socket is now nowhere near as strong as it should be which makes me hesitant in dealing with conflict at work,” he added.

Defence barrister Marc Luxford said that Davies, who worked as a builder’s labourer, had never been in trouble before.

He said the young man who had threatened to stab the off-duty officer had been dealt with at the youth court by way of a community order.

Judge Simon Hickey said that this “obnoxious individual” had been “very lucky” to escape with a youth order and described Davies’s behaviour as “disgraceful”.

He told the teenager: “You attacked an off-duty officer in the street.

"He came across you popped up on drink and drugs (and) you attacked him for no good reason.

“You are a powerful, largely built young man and you can cause, as you did, a lot of damage by a punch.”

However, the judge said he had to take account of Davies’s young age, Britain’s “vastly overcrowded” prison estate and that he had a good job and supportive parents.

He accepted the incident was a “one-off” and that “prison blights lives”.

Mr Hickey said that due to the “strong mitigation”, he could suspend the inevitable jail sentence.

The nine-month prison sentence was suspended for two years.

Davies was ordered to pay the officer £1,000 compensation.