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A MAN was warned he faces a lengthy jail sentence after admitting a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

William Burnside, 24, of Elton Parade, Darlington, ‘glassed’ his victim with a beer bottle leaving him with deep cuts to his face and arm.

The attack happened in Darlington town centre on August 27 this year.

Burnside appeared at Teesside Crown Court and pleaded guilty to the offence in front of Recorder Bernard Gateshill.

Adjourning the case for a pre-sentence report, Recorder Gateshill told the defendant: “Cases of this kind inevitably attract lengthy custodial sentences. You must be prepared for such an outcome.

“The fact that I am adjourning your case and granting you bail must not give you any grounds for hope that there will be an alternative outcome.”

Burnside is due to be sentenced next year on January 13.


The Northern Echo

Burnside 2nd left.

Burnside 2nd left.

marcus ward

A drug dealing English Defence League supporter slashed two men with a cut throat razor during a brutal gang attack at a pub.

Twenty-six year-old Marcus Ward went on the run for two-and-a-half years following the attack in March 2010, only handing himself in to police in September last year.

Judge Jonathan Foster QC branded Ward a ‘dangerous man’ at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court as he jailed him a total of 11 years. Ward and fellow supporters of the far-right organisation visited the Oddfellows in Middleton following a march in Bolton.

But the gang, who were wearing English Defence League clothing and carrying EDL flags, were asked to leave the Oldham Road pub by the concerned landlord due to their rowdy behaviour.

When the landlord went outside to explain why he had asked them to leave he was punched and kicked in the face.

Two bystanders went to help the landlord, when Ward, formerly of North Street, Boarshaw, assaulted them with a cut-throat razor.

One victim was left with a 15cm cut to the back of his head and a cut lip. The other suffered slashes running from his left shoulder to his back. One wound was so serious he needed surgery.

The court was told Ward was one of eight children raised by a father who was described by the judge as a violent ‘habitual criminal’, after his mother left home when he was four years old.

Ward was on bail for firearms offences at the time of the attack. He was caught with a pistol and a sawn-off shotgun with rounds of ammunition during a police search of his former home.

Police also found an air rifle, a crossbow, a machete, £5,413 worth of cannabis, £160 in cash, a dealers’ list and some snap bags.

Ward, who had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon, and pleaded guilty to two counts of firearms possession, possession of ammunition and possession of cannabis with intent to supply, told the court that the firearms belonged to his late father, who had asked him to look after them for him.

He denied that he kept firearms for protection because he was dealing drugs.

Ward, who admitted that he did sell drugs to friends, but said it wasn’t on a large scale, said: “He was pretty strict my old man and whatever he said went. I didn’t feel that I could refuse his request.”

Ward was sentenced to a total of 11 years imprisonment, with six-and-a-half years concurrent for possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition, possession of a shotgun and possession of cannabis with intent to supply, and four-and-a-half years concurrent for two charges of section 18 wounding and possession of an offensive weapon, namely a cut-throat razor and violent disorder.

After sentencing Detective Inspector Andy Butterworth said: “This is a dangerous individual who was pursued relentlessly by the police.”

Manchester Evening News

A JUDGE has condemned a gang which got embroiled in a ‘spiral of violence’ in Dewsbury.

This week four men were jailed for an attack on two teenagers, which Leeds Crown Court heard was the result of heightened racial tensions in Thornhill Lees.

Two of the defendants, Josh Foster and Jordan Williams, were seeking revenge after being beaten up by a group of Asian males in October.

Melvin Watts, 19, told police the pair called for him on November 3 and told him, ‘Tonight’s the night’. Watts thought this meant they were going to find the men who had attacked them. He said he took a craft knife for self-defence.

The trio called for Dale Oakley, 21, and all four went to Thornhill Lees where they set upon two Asian teenagers in Lees Hall Road.

Williams hit one of the teenagers with a stick and Watts slashed one of them across the face.

Abdul Iqbal, mitigating, said the other men started attacking the two teenagers before Watts got involved.

Mr Iqbal said: “He took that as a tacit confirmation that these were the people they were looking for.”

But David Bradshaw, prosecuting, said neither of the victims were linked with the assault on Foster and Williams.

He added that Williams, 18, had told officers that Watts had invited friends on Facebook to go ‘muzzy hunting’.

Mr Iqbal said there had been heightened racial tensions in Thornhill Lees after Jack Carter had been killed by an Asian man in August. But Richard Canning, mitigating, said Foster did not see the attack as racist.

Sam Andrews and Robin Frieze for Williams and Oakley said both had shown remorse.

Watts, of Mountain Road, Thornhill, was given five years in a young offenders’ institute for wounding with intent and possessing an offensive weapon.

Foster, 18, of Grange Crescent, Tadcaster, was given 15 months in a young offenders’ institute for wounding and racially aggravated assault.

Oakley, of Thorn Avenue, Thornhill, was jailed for 18 months for the same offences.

Williams, of Partridge Crescent, Thornhill, was sent to a young offenders’ institute for 18 months for wounding, racially aggravated assault and possessing an offensive weapon.

Judge Colin Burn said: “I have heard about the death of Mr Carter and it is clear it is a part of a cycle or spiral of violence in your area. You four, with some enthusiasm, decided to get yourselves involved.

“What you did was completely unacceptable in any civilised society. Both complainants were traumatised by what happened to them and in the case of one, he has been left with a permanent facial scar.

“It’s an absolute miracle that his eye was not put out.”

Dewsbury Reporter