A UNIVERSITY student who hit another young man over the head with a wheel brace during an incident outside a Coventry night club has narrowly escaped being jailed.
Adeel Hussain, 21, had denied a charge of wounding with intent – but on the day of his trial at Warwick Crown Court he pleaded guilty to a less serious offence of unlawful wounding.
Hussain, of Tregullan Road, Exhall, was sentenced to ten months in prison suspended for two years, with 200 hours of unpaid work.
But Judge Andrew Lockhart QC also imposed a swingeing 7pm to 7am curfew on him for the next nine months, and ordered him to pay £1,500 compensation to his victim and £500 costs.
Prosecutor David Jackson said that in October 2017 Hussain and Reece Shaw were in different groups outside the Kasbah night club in Coventry in the early hours of the morning.
There was an incident between members of the two groups after Mr Shaw objected to a comment about one of the young women in his group.
“There was some pushing and shoving, and he became aware of someone calling his name and then feeling a massive smack to the top of his head, and he was knocked to the ground with blood pouring from his head,” said Mr Jackson.
He was not aware of what had happened, but a witness described seeing Hussain ‘mouthing off.’
That man said he then became aware of ‘a metal implement’ coming over his shoulder as Hussain swung it at Mr Shaw, hitting him to the head.
The witness, who said Mr Shaw had done nothing to provoke the attack, wrested the weapon, which turned out to be a wheel brace, from Hussain’s grasp, and he was then detained by a doorman until the police arrived.
Mr Jackson pointed out that a CCTV recording showed Hussain had left the confrontation to go to a friend’s car and take the wheel brace from it before returning to the scene.
When he was interviewed Hussain maintained he had got the weapon to defend his friends, who he claimed were ‘under attack,’ and that he had waved it around but had not deliberately hit anyone with it.
Mr Jackson added that following the incident Mr Shaw was taken to hospital where he needed stitches to a 7cm wound to his head.
Darron Whitehead, defending, said Hussain had been a student at De Montfort University in Leicester at the time, but failed his second year and is now at Coventry University.
Mr Whitehead pointed out that Hussain had no previous convictions at the time, although in October last year he was given a community order with unpaid work for a public order offence in Leicester.
Judge Lockhart was referred to a number of references, but told Hussain: “The problem with the references is that they predate your foolishness at De Montfort University.
“You are within a whisper of going directly to custody today.”
And reserving any breaches of the suspended sentence to himself, the judge added: “You should ensure you do not darken the door of this court again. You should grow up.”
