Kettle Black Sheffield: Doorman pays heavy price for assaulting reveller at Ecclesall Road bar

Sheffield Crown Court heard on October 11 how Scott Briggs, aged 29, of John Calvert Road, Woodhouse, Sheffield, had been working at the Kettle Black bar, on Ecclesall Road, when he and fellow door staff told a man he needed to leave the bar before Briggs assaulted him.

James Yearsley, prosecuting, told the court Briggs and other door staff had initially approached the complainant and his friend saying they needed to leave but when they refused the defendant became aggressive.

Mr Yearsley said: “The defendant took exception to them querying this and he became aggressive and said, ‘If you want to get cheeky, you can take this outside’.”

Briggs punched the complainant repeatedly while he was on the ground before dragging him outside and the complainant said he remembers being in Ecclesall Road with a swollen eye.

The court heard the complainant was taken to hospital and he was treated for a fracture and swelling around his left eye after the incident about two-and-a-half years ago.

Briggs, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm after the incident which was captured on CCTV.

Dermot Hughes, defending, said Briggs had acted entirely out of character and he will no longer be working as a door supervisor because he has lost his accreditation. Mr Hughes added that the complainant and his friend had been drinking and the complainant had ‘not been entirely co-operative’.

Briggs is in full-time employment, according to Mr Hughes, and the defendant has a good work record and he is in a relationship with responsibilities for two children, he added.

Mr Hughes said: “There is genuine remorse on his part and he has been terrified about the prospect of losing his liberty.”

Judge Peter Kelson KC, who fined Briggs £1,000, acknowledged there had been a delay with the case reaching court through no fault of the defendant.

He told Briggs: “Having watched the CCTV you were entitled to ask these people to leave and you did ask them to leave and having watched the CCTV I formed the view you had been rather patient but unfortunately your temper did snap.”