Bottle attacker ‘feared for girl’

Jack Robinson, 21, left victim Jason McKenzie with a gashed face, bleeding heavily and dizzy after the attack in Burnley town centre on September 23, the town's magistrates heard.

The defendant was said to have struck out after he claimed Mr McKenzie aimed a headbutt at his former partner and got hold of her around the throat.

Robinson, of Piccadilly Square, Burnley, admitted assault by beating and assault causing actual bodily harm.

He was committed on bail to the town's crown court for sentence on January 5.

Wendy Chappell, prosecuting, told the court the victim, who was said to have been drinking and taking ecstasy, saw a girl he knew named Nicola Dixon. He could see the defendant had a bottle in his hand and walked out of the pub.

He felt the defendant pushing him in the back and heard him threaten: "I am going to kill you."

Mr McKenzie then saw the flash of a bottle and was hit over the head.

"The next thing he recalled was a police officer picking him up off the ground.

Mr McKenzie suffered three cuts to his face, two of which were bleeding badly.

Mrs Chappell said doorman Shane Robinson, who worked at Isobar, saw a man standing beside him and a man running across to him with an alcopop bottle raised above his head.

Mr Robinson put his hands up to block the bottle and suffered a cut to his left index finger as the defendant hit Mr McKenzie.

The prosecutor said when Robinson was questioned by police he claimed he had been defending his girlfriend Miss Dixon.

He alleged Miss Dixon had been dragged outside and assaulted by the victim and he had hit him over the head, forgetting he had the bottle in his hand.

Mark Williams, defending, said Robinson would say Mr McKenzie had lunged at Miss Dixon, who was the defendant's ex-girlfriend, after a row.

He allegedly aimed a headbutt and grabbed her around the throat, he said.

The solicitor continued: "He accepts he rushed outside and hit him with the bottle."