Warwick man jailed after smashing girlfriend's son over head with bottle of prosseco

John Speke appeared at Warwick Crown Court over a video link from HMP Hewell, where he has been on remand, after pleading guilty to a charge of unlawful wounding.

Speke, 42, who is from Warwick but of no fixed address, and who had previous convictions for violence, was jailed for two years and four months.

Prosecutor Blondel Thompson said that on February 5 the victim, a young man with learning difficulties, went to his mother’s home in Warwick.

She had invited a few friends round, and they were all drinking – but when Speke arrived he began drinking ‘quite a lot,’ and her son asked him to slow down.

Speke reacted by lashing out with a Prosecco bottle, hitting him over the head and causing a 3cm wound to his forehead.

When he was later arrested Speke at first denied the incident, but then said his victim was ‘coming the big man,’ so he had ‘whacked him across the face.’

Miss Thompson, addressing the court via a video conferencing facility, added that Speke had a number of previous convictions for offences including battery and affray.

Appearing in the same way, Ian Speed, defending, said there had been a four-year gap in Speke’s offending, and suggested he was ‘a man who undoubtedly needs help’ for his drinking.

“He has been in custody since his arrest, and it has been a sobering experience in more ways than one.

He’s off the drink, and he’s got a future.”

Mr Speed said that despite his drinking, Speke had been in full-time employment, and the job was still open to him if he was given a suspended sentence.

But jailing Speke, Judge Peter Cooke told him: “The young man you hit and, I suspect, permanently scarred was a vulnerable individual.

“What’s more, you knew that full well because of your connection with him and his family.

“You did what you did during a drinking binge at a gathering involving people with whom you had been volatile in the past.

“Because of the way he spoke to you, which you didn’t approve of, you struck him over the head with a Prosecco bottle, causing a wound.

"What you did is aggravated by the domestic violence context, because you were his mother’s boyfriend at the time, the fact that you were under the influence of alcohol, and your violent antecedents.”