STACEY: JAIL FOR MAN WHO CLUBBED FRIEND WITH CHAIR LEG

A thug who smashed his friend in the head with a chair before telling police ‘he was doing my head in’ was jailed for 12 weeks today (Mon).

Stuart Stacey, 44, left Colin Whittam with a five inch gash in his forehead after ‘snapping’ over his constant grumbling.

The two men, both heavy drinkers, had rowed over an earlier drunken escapade in which they climbed up a local pub.

Stacey was jailed for 12 weeks at Woolwich Crown Court today after he admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Judge Philip Shorrock told him: ‘You did cause your victim a serious injury.

‘Police officers refer to a five to six inch cut on his head, which appeared to about a quarter on an inch wide.

‘It’s also the case that you used a weapon in the form of a chair.

‘You were drunk at the time too.’

Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay told the court that the assault took place outside St Mungo’s Hostel in Hither Green, South East London on 23 July this year.

Police were called to the scene after Stacey himself called for help following the attack.

He told officers that he had hit the victim with a chair, but said he had been ‘provoked’, adding: ‘I don’t need this.’

He said Mr Whittam had repeatedly complained about an earlier incident in which they had been climbing a building when the police arrived.

He added that ‘Colin was doing his head in and he snapped.’

Natalie Sherbourn, defending Stacey, asked the judge to consider a community order with an alcohol treatment requirement for her client.

She said he drank 30 to 40 units of alcohol a day, but he pleas were rejected.

Stacey, of Spring Gardens, Hither Green, admitted assault occasioning ABH.

ENDS