OSORIO: SNAPPER GETS 5 YEARS FOR BROKEN BOTTLE BRAWL
A photographer who sliced a doorman’s lip open with a broken bottle has been jailed today (THUR) for five years.
Julio Osorio, 41, attacked Ejiro Bazunu outside Thirst Bar, in central London on July 13 of this year.
He lashed out at Mr Bazunu after a row outside the Soho venue erupted between the two men.
Osorio had been walking up and down outside the bar acting ‘bizarrely’ and ‘annoying’ women in the street.
Southwark Crown Court heard that the attack happened at around 10.30pm after complaints were made about Osorio’s behaviour.
When the doorman approached Osorio to speak to him he became aggressive and moments later grabbed a bottle, smashed it, and slashed Mr Bazunu’s face.
Mr Bazunu, a father of two, was treated for injuries to his face and hand at St Thomas’ Hospital.
He was forced to take three weeks of work to recover from the attack.
Jailing Osorio Judge Stephen Robbins said: ‘You know that the time has come when you must be punished for this act of violence that you carried out while under the influence of drink and possibly drugs.
‘This was a vicious and pre-meditated attack on another human being who was doing his level best to do his duty as a doorman on that night.
‘I have to bear in mind the effects it has had on him.
‘You used this bottle to cause serious injury.
Lawyers for Osorio, originally from Colombia, argued that the attack had been carried out on the ‘spur of the moment’.
According to Osorio’s website he has self-published a book of pictures capturing the lives of children in third world countries.
He wrote on the site: ‘he objective and essence of the book was to make people in the Western World aware of the way in which the great majority of children grow up in the world.
‘It was just an observation from my viewpoint behind a camera and with a single aim, which was to capture the beauty of being a child, even under those circumstances shown in my photographs.
‘Although you can see the poverty around them, I have tried to capture the hope and innocence within their souls.’
Osorio, of Liverpool Road, Holloway, north London, was convicted of wounding with intent.
