A MAN from Crosshands admitted a drunken, common assault at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Nicholas Luke Flint, age 22, of Norton Road, Pen-y-groes, pleaded guilty to beating David Tripp on a drunken night out, at a Pembrokeshire holiday park. Mr Vaughn Pritchard-Jones, prosecuting, told the court: “At around 11.30pm on a September 28, Mr David Tripp, a 48-year-old civil servant was staying at Kiln Park with his girlfriend. They walked into the leisure complex of Kiln Park. There was a group of men standing in the foyer, of which the defendant was one.

“One of the men shouted ‘Hey mate!’. The defendant said to him and to his girlfriend: ‘Do you want a threesome?’. Mr Tripp was surprised and said ‘What?’. The defendant confirmed what he said again: ‘A threesome.’ Mr Tripp continued to walk into the centre, telling the defendant, perhaps unwisely, to ‘**** ***’.

“The man ran after him and punched him once, connecting with the left hand side of his temple, causing glasses to be pushed into his face, and had a small cut on the bridge of his nose as a result of being punched. He didn’t retaliate, just stepped back and walked away.”

“The police attended, and Mr Flint was arrested and interviewed. He stated he didn’t remember much as he had been watching Swansea play football and had consumed a lot of alcohol. He had little recollection of events after the match. He does accept that he remembers punching the man. He says he punched him as he had been annoying him all night.”

“Aggravating features in this case seem to be an unprovoked attack under the heavy influence of alcohol. The offence was committed while subject to a community order.”

Defending solicitor, Mike Kelleher said: “You have the previous convictions and there are none for violence. My job is made difficult as the defendant cannot remember what has happened. The defendant appears to have punched the victim and he accepts that he did it, he also accepted it in interview.

“The injuries are not serious, a small cut and a black eye. In the circumstances I ask you to find that this is in the lower end of the scale. You may care to deal with this by way of a financial penalty, or if you feel the actions of the victims have not helped then you may consider a conditional discharge.”

The chairman of the bench told the defendant: “This didn’t seem to be a particularly pleasing event for the victim, Mr Tripp. Therefore we are going to award him compensation of £50 for the cut. We will give you a conditional discharge for a period of 12 months.

“You will not be further punished for this offence but if you commit further offences in the next 12 months you will then be re-sentenced for this offence. We will award costs of £150, which will be added to your current outstanding fines of £625. We will deduct the new fine from your benefits at a rate of £5 per week.”