An Auckland man admitted assaulting five people in a UK pub. Photo / 123RF
An Auckland man has been handed a suspended prison sentence in the UK after punching a barmaid and assaulting four other pub workers when they refused to let him use the toilet.
Paul Brownie, 50, appeared in court in Nottingham this week and was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to the assault.
According to Nottingham News Brownie was due to return to New Zealand today.
The assault happened at the Ned Ludd bar at 1.45am on Thursday.
The court heard Brownie had consumed four pints of lager and four gin and tonics at other bars earlier in the night.
He went into the Ned Ludd and asked to use the toilet.
The pub was closed and staff declined Brownie's request.
They asked him to leave but he became "increasingly aggressive".
He then punched a barmaid and hurled a chair across the empty pub at another staffer before leaving the scene.
Police found Brownie soon after and arrested him.
He was charged with five counts of assault and one of having a knife in public.
The knife was found in his pocket by police.
According to Nottingham News, Brownie told police he had been camping across Europe and the UK and the knife was part of his travelling kit.
Magistrate Jane Forman Hardy told Brownie there was a lot of knife crime in Nottingham
city at night.
"I don't know whether you have been here long enough to hear the news," she said.
"We don't go along with your explanation for why you were carrying a knife of that size in the city at night.
"That is not the sort of camping knife you forget is in your pocket."
She also detailed the assault at the bar.
"You hit one of the female staff and used a chair as a weapon to hit others," she said to Brownie in court.
"The people working there didn't deserve you to become so aggressive with no provocation at all."
She ordered Brownie to pay £250 (NZ$492) to the punched worker and £100 (NZ$196) to each of the other four, as well as a £115 (NZ$226) government surcharge and £85 ($NZ167) prosecution costs.
Brownie's defence lawyer told the court the company director had been in England visiting "a dying relative for the last time".
He was due to fly home shortly after the assault.
"This was a once-in-a-lifetime trip," the lawyer said.
He told the court Brownie had a building firm employing 20 people in New Zealand and had been running that by phone during his five-week trip.
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