Men avoid jail after "brutal" attack outside pub (From Croydon Guardian)

Men avoid jail after "brutal" attack outside Colliers Tup in Colliers Wood

11:00am Thursday 14th February 2013 in News By Lauren May, Chief Reporter

Four men who beat, punched and kicked a man to the ground during a fight outside a pub have narrowly avoided jail.

In what was called a "brutal attack" four men were caught on CCTV repeatedly punching and kicking a man to the floor outside the Colliers Tup in Colliers Wood on October 7 at about 2.30am.

Damian Pomaranski, 22, of Crusoe Road, Mitcham, Ionut Leonard Gaitan, 27, also of Crusoe Road in Mitcham, Lukasz Drozd, 32, of Stapleton Gardens in Croydon, and Pawel Rutkowski, 26, of Lysias Road in Clapham, had all been drinking earlier in the day.

Sentencing the men at Kingston Crown Court on February 12, Judge Hunter, Vice General Advocate, said: "This was a brutal attack by three men on a man on the floor.

"When people kick people on the floor people can lose their lives.

"There is a great deal of this going on and the public demand that people who behave in this way are sent to prison."

Despite CCTV clearly showing the men attack the man, it was accepted by the crown that they may have been earlier provoked owing for a more lenient sentence.

Judge Hunter said: "It maybe that the public think you have been let off very lightly given that these are suspended sentences.

"I only suspend these sentences because of the basis of plea that was accepted by the crown.

"The crown has accepted there may have been some provocation so I’m bound to take that into account.

"Had it not been for that you would most certainly have been going to prison today."

Pomaranski, Drozd and Rutkowski were sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to one count each of aggravated bodily harm.

Gaitan, who pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of assault by beating, received a prison sentence of nine months, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.