Jealous husband drunkenly lashed out with beer bottle at Mansfield party

A Mansfield man was drunk and jealous when he lashed out at his wife's ex-partner while holding a beer bottle at a Bonfire Night party, a court heard.
Mansfield Magistrates Court.Mansfield Magistrates Court.
Mansfield Magistrates Court.

Stuart Bell punched the man twice on Windsor Road, in the early hours of November 6, after he saw his victim talking to his wife.

Bell had been looking for his wife and called her twice, but she ignored the phone calls, said Neil Hollett, prosecuting.

“He walked towards his victim and said “We need to talk.”

“He swung one of his hands holding a bottle which hit him on the right eye and he fell to the floor.

“On the floor he felt more blows to his head.”

Bell and his wife ran off and the victim, who sustained two small cuts to his right eye, was taken to hospital suffering from blurred vision.

“He didn’t hit him with the bottle,” said Mr Hollett. “His hand was wrapped around it.

“He says his judgment was affected by the eight bottles of beer he had drunk.”

He said the Crown accepted’s Bell’s version and lowered the charge from assault occasioning actual bodily harm to assault.

Bell, a civil engineer, had a previous conviction for violence in 2011.

Yvonne Wragg, mitigating, said: “He is extremely remorseful about his actions. He saw red. There was a bit of the green-eyed monster going on.

“He saw them walking down the street and thought something was amiss. He lashed out and punched the victim two times to the head.

“It is something that happened in the heat of the moment.”

She said Bell and his wife had since reconciled, but he no longer associated with her group of friends and had stopped drinking.

Bell, 28, of Chesterfield Road South, admitted assault when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

He was given a 12 month community order with hours of 100 unpaid work. He was fined £50 and ordered to pay £280 compensation, with £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge.

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