Judge bans yob from Preston bup after shocking attack

Robert Sneddon had been celebrating a 50th birthday with family and friends in the Black-a-Moor Head pub in Lancaster Road, Preston, when Mark McAlinden led him to a back room and felled him with a single blow.

The shocking attack was captured on CCTV shown at Preston Crown Court when McAlinden, 38, appeared to be sentenced.

Just two days before the attack McAlinden, of Great Shaw Street, Preston, had been handed a conditional discharge by the city’s magistrates for being drunk and disorderly.

Recorder Guy Mathieson, sentencing, said: “You know from your record that indulging in drunken violence can lead you to spend considerable time in custody.”

The court heard McAlinden was on a date with a woman when he returned from the toilets to discover Mr Sneddon talking to her at the bar.

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The two men were seen walking to the pool room with Mr Sneddon straining to hear what McAlinden was saying.

But when they reached the side of the pool table, McAlinden turned and struck a hard blow to Mr Sneddon’s face, leaving him with a cut to his right temple.

He felt dizzy and disorientated and went to the A&E department of Royal Preston Hospital to have the wound cleaned and dressed.

McAlinden pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).

The court heard he is now in a steady relationship with the woman he was with on September 26, when he attacked Mr Sneddon.

He has a stable job and has not committed any further offences since that night.

Recorder Matheson said: “When you came back to the main bar area he was having some kind of conversation with your date.

“Without checking anything further you beckoned him over. By that time you had formed the intention he was going to be the victim of some violence at your hands, whether because of some perceived slight you felt or because you were showing off to your date.

“He had done nothing that justified you taking him into the back room.”

The judge handed McAlinden a community order for 24 months and ordered him to undergo 60 days of a rehabilitation requirement.

He also handed him a nine months alcohol treatment requirement and banned him from visiting the Black-a-Moor Head pub.

He told him: “Just stay away. Find another local where you can have a quiet drink with your partner.”