Published at 11:06, Thursday, 29 March 2012

A MAN has been ordered to pay £1,500 compensation to a 16-year-old boy he headbutted after getting blind drunk after a funeral.

Wayne Hunter, 42, of Clayton Avenue, Cleator Moor, went out and got “mortal drunk” after being pallbearer at the funeral of his partner’s mother on September 26 last year, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Soon afterwards he turned up outside a house in Birks Road, Cleator Moor, shouting and banging on the door.

When the teenager went out to see what was happening, Hunter – still staggering around and slurring his words – told him: “I’m going to knock you out mate.”

He then grabbed the boy’s shirt collar, pulled him into the garden, shoved him against a wall and headbutted him. The boy managed to run into the house and shut the door, but he needed hospital treatment for bruises and a broken tooth.

The court heard that when interviewed by the police, Hunter admitted he had been “10” on a “1-10” scale of drunkenness.

Hunter pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm, though he said he had no recollection of the incident.

He was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, made to do 300 hours of unpaid community work and told to pay the boy £1,500 compensation, with £200 costs.

Judge Paul Batty QC said he accepted that most of the time Hunter was “a very respectable citizen” but he told him: “I’m afraid you have an extremely nasty streak when drink is in you.”

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk