A man wearing a personalised knuckleduster punched a pub customer in the face in a "wholly unprovoked and vicious" assault, a court has heard. The victim needed a total of 34 stitches to his wounds after being assaulted in the toilets of the bar.
Swansea Crown Court heard Peter Price has no recollection of travelling the more than 50 miles from his home in Pembrokeshire to the bar on Swansea's Wind Street where he attacked a stranger. Sending the 27-year-old to prison a judge said the only reason a person would wear a knuckleduster on a night out was to cause "maximum damage" if it came to a fight.
Helen Randall, prosecuting, said the assault took place in the toilets of the Peppermint bar on Wind Street at around half-past-midnight on January 28 this year. She said the defendant and complainant were unknown to each other and after a brief exchange of words Price launched an "unprovoked attack" on his victim by punching him the mouth. The toilet attendant and the defendant's cousin tried to intervene but Price hit his victim again, knocking him backwards and causing him to strike his head on the wall before going to the floor. The toilet attendant then managed to grab Price and restrain him.
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The court heard police were called to the bar and the defendant was arrested. While in custody he was "abusive and aggressive" towards officers including making refences to "pigs" and "bacon" and to sex acts involving their grandparents. At the time of the assault he was wearing a two-fingered "ring" type knuckleduster. Meanwhile the injured man had been given first aid at the scene by the bar manager before being taken to Morriston Hospital where lacerations to his head, face, lips and the inside of his mouth were stitched with a total of 34 stitches.
Peter Billy Dean Price, of Broadmoor, Kilgetty, Pembrokeshire, had previously pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm (GBH) when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has five previous convictions for seven offences including two assaults by beating and a GBH. All these offences had involved Price punching his victims in the face, with the GBH from 2021 seeing him sentenced to 19 months in prison suspended for 20 months after breaking a man's jaw. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter here.
Hywel Davies, for Price, said since the commission of the offence the defendant had been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and been prescribed medication but before that diagnosis he had been "self-medicating" with alcohol and drugs. He said following the death of a cousin in 2023 his client's mental health had deteriorated significantly which had led to the offence. The barrister said Price was a father-of-two and was expecting a third child with his partner in January, and he told the court that the defendant had drunk "far too much" while out in Pembrokeshire on the night question and could remember nothing of the journey to Swansea nor of the assault itself.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said it was clear Price had a "savage, uncontrolled temper" and had carried out a "wholly unprovoked and vicious" assault on his victim. He said the only reason a person would wear a knuckleduster on a night out was to cause "maximum damage" if it came to a fight. He added that he was "very sceptical" of the defendant's assertion that he has no recollection of traveling the more than 50 miles from home to Swansea on the night in question.
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty plea Price was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. Judge Thomas warned the defendant that if he continued to act in a violent way upon his release the sentences he receives will get longer and longer, and he said there may come a time when a court finds he is dangerous offender requiring an extended sentence - if, indeed, that point had not yet already been reached.