Warminster teenager in court over bottle attack (From This Is Wiltshire)

Warminster teenager in court over bottle attack

7:40am Monday 15th March 2010 in

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A teenager who hurled a bottle through a man’s window in a row over a girl and then lied to police about being assaulted by him has avoided jail.

Dean Smith said he had been slashed across the chest by Daniel Read when in reality his own brother had scratched him before they called the police to report the lie.

And as a result Mr Read was arrested at his home in the middle of the night, taken to Melksham police station and held in custody for 19 hours.

But the 19-year-old who has a history of crime was given a last chance by a judge after he admitted perverting the course of justice.

Rachel Marshall, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court on Friday Mr Read was at his Warminster home in the early hours of Tuesday August 11 last year when he heard someone outside.

The door of his flat on Bath Road was then being kicked and he heard someone calling his name.

After going to look out he saw the Smith brothers with whom he was in dispute over claims he was in a relationship with one of their girlfriends.

As he went to lock the door a bottle came through the window landing on the sofa and he was aware of the brothers leaving in a car.

Miss Marshall said he called the police but was told it was not an emergency and to ring back on another number, which he did not bother to do.

Soon after she said the police arrived at his flat and arrested him for actual bodily harm and detained him until the following night.

She said after getting home the Smiths had called the police to say Dean had been assaulted by Mr Read.

When officers arrived he said first Mr Read had held a knife to his throat but then lifted his shirt to show them the injury.

He said it had been caused when Mr Read came at him with a knife when they were at his flat.

But when police were suspicious he was later questioned and admitted breaking the window and cooking up the story about the knife.

He admitted his brother had scratched him with a view to getting Mr Read in trouble.

Smith, formerly of Saxon Close, Westbury, but now living in Frome pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and criminal damage.

Alex Daymond, defending, said the offence arose out of ‘considerable ill feeling’ between his client and the victim.

He said there had been contact over the phone between them after the incident at the flat and Mr Read made and abusive call when the police were seeing the Smiths.

In the nine months since the offence he said a lot of thing had changed for his client and he had stayed out of trouble.

Passing sentence Judge David Ticehurst said “I am going to give you a last chance. You should understand if you fail to take this final chance you will go to prison.”

He passed a six month jail term suspended for two years and told him he would be under supervision for that time.

Smith was also told he must have no contact with Mr Read for two years and pay him £200 in compensation.

Smith’s brother Mark, of Portway Lane, Warminster, pleaded guilty to a similar charge of perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing and is wanted on warrant.