Six men from 'rival factions' jailed over huge armed brawl involving 20 - 30 people in Sheffield car park

The violence unfolded in the car park of the Pennine Foods factory on Drake House Road in Waterthorpe, Sheffield, in the presence of exiting factory workers and shocked onlookers,’ one of whom said they felt ‘frightened to death’ during the incident.

During a sentencing hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on January 20, 2023, prosecuting barrister, Ian Goldsack, said between 20 and 30 people from ‘rival factions’ are believed to have been involved in what he described as a ‘large-scale brawl,’ with two of the defendants, Jan Tomko and Zdeno Tomko, on one side; and the remaining four – Igor Pecha; Ivan Ziga Senior; Ivan Ziga Junior and Stefan Ziga – on the other.

Mr Goldsack said weapons, including wooden chair legs, a wooden bat and garden shears, were ‘taken to the scene’ by both groups.

“Two vehicles were in the process of leaving the Pennine Foods complex...and they were effectively blocked in by a BMW driven by Jan Tomko with Zdeno Tomko as a passenger,” Mr Goldsack told the court.

He added: “Jan Tomko got out of his BMW carrying some sort of wooden bat and used it to smash the rear windows of the Astra [one of the two vehicles blocked in] and the occupants got out. Ivan Ziga Senior got out. Mr Ziga Senior was holding a weapon in his right hand, which appeared to be a knife. I note that in fact he said he was holding a set of garden shears...he ran towards the violence slashing and hacking with it.”

Mr Goldsack told the court that the other four defendants also ‘involved themselves’ with the violent disorder. He said Zdeno Tomko used a golf club to ‘aim blows towards Stefan Ziga and others,’ while Stefan Ziga ‘aimed blows at others’ with ‘some form of pole’; Igor Pecha was ‘armed with a chair leg’ and ‘struck out with it’ and Ivan Ziga Junior was ‘seen to pick up one, if not two, weapons from the ground during the incident’.

Witnesses to the violence were caused ‘serious distress,’ Mr Goldsack said, one of whom was a pregnant woman who said the brawl caused her to feel ‘very afraid’ while another said they felt ‘frightened to death’.”

“This was a very frightening incident with totally unacceptable, and unbelievable, behaviour which they [the witnesses] feared they would become embroiled with,” Mr Goldsack added.

The exact reason for the brawl was not disclosed in court, but defence barrister, Mark Dooley, representing Jan Tomko, said there had been an incident between the two factions at a christening ‘some weeks earlier’; while another defence barrister, Stuart Bell, representing Ivan Ziga Senior, said there had been ‘worries’ for the Ziga family in the ‘days and weeks leading up to this’ following ‘reports of threats and the like’.

A number of the defendants, along with several other individuals involved in the brawl, were wounded in the melee, with injuries including a broken arm and a ‘nasty-looking cut to the forehead,’ the court heard.

All six defendants were charged with, and pleaded guilty to, violent disorder, while Jan Tomko, aged 26, of Margate Drive, Burngreave, and 28-year-old Zdeno Tomko, of Staniforth Road, Darnall, also admitted an additional charge of possessing a weapon in a public place.

The other individuals involved with the brawl have not been identified, and Mr Goldsack said ‘it is believed that some are no longer in this jurisdiction’.

Ivan Ziga Senior, Stefan Ziga and Igor Pecha were all employed by Pennine Foods at the time of the incident, and were subsequently sacked by the firm, the court heard.

The incident took place on February 8, 2019, and Recorder Peter Hampton, asked Mr Goldsack why it had taken almost four years for the case to be brought before a sentencing judge, describing the delay as ‘excessive’.

Mr Goldsack cited the ‘complex’ nature of the case, the time it took for forensics to be carried out on the various weapons and vehicles belonging to those involved, ‘denials’ made by some defendants in police interview which initially informed the way in which the prosecution case was being prepared and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as some of the factors behind the delay.

Defending Jan Tomko, Mark Dooley said his client ‘is a man who recognises that he effectively started things off,’ but added that he acknowledged his part in the brawl at an early stage during police interview, following that up with a guilty plea, which Mr Dooley suggested was one of the ways his client had expressed his ‘genuine remorse’.

“He’s a family man, he has two children and has been in a relationship with his partner for 10 years...for want of a better phrase he’s the breadwinner and he tells me his partner is now pregnant with their third child,” Mr Dooley said.

James Baird, representing Zdeno Tomko, said: “He was 24 at the time of this offence and is now 28, and has matured considerably. He came to this country at the age of 13 and did well at school, and had ambitions. He was attending college when his wife became pregnant with their first child when he was 20-years-old so he left college and has been in employment ever since, supporting his family. He now has three children and is the breadwinner of his family.”

Ivan Ziga Senior, 52, of Staniforth Road, Darnall, was represented by Stuart Bell, who told the court that his client had been avoiding work around the time of the incident after threats were reportedly made towards his family, but went in as normal on the day of the incident because he was told another absence would result in him losing his job.

He did not want or expect disorder to occur then,” Mr Bell said, but conceded his client had been ‘ready’ for an attack, responding to the perceived threat of violence by arming himself.

Richard Childs represented 38-year-old Stefan Ziga, also of Staniforth Road, Darnall. He said: “This is a man with seven children, and of previous good character until this incident. He’s a hard-working man...he’s understandably worried about the impact it [his incarceration] would have on his daughters, on his family.”

Both Igor Pecha, 29, of Staniforth Road, Darnall and 33-year-old Ivan Ziga Junior, of Swarcliffe Road, Darnall were represented by Kevin Jones.

“The fact that nothing has occurred in the near enough four years since this happened demonstrates they can stay out of trouble and lead law-abiding lives,” he said.

The judge, Recorder Peter Hampton, told the court that he took the view that Jan Tomko and Zdeno Tomko were the ‘instigators,’ but as soon as ‘violence had begun’ Ivan Ziga Senior very quickly got out of the car 'leading the charge’.

He added: “Both factions were pre-armed, both were involved in violence, all used violence and brandished weapons.”

“You all chose to persist in this gruesome display of violence in the streets,” adding that it only calmed when the sound of police sirens could be heard.

Recorder Hampton said he accepted all of the defendants were ‘remorseful,’ and had taken the ‘extensive’ delay in the case reaching court as well as the fact that each of the men was the only earning adult in each of their respective families into consideration.

“You were not thinking of your families when you acted in the way you did,” Recorder Hampton told the defendants, adding that ‘only sentences of immediate custody will suffice’.

He sent all six defendants straight to prison with the following jail terms: Jan Tomko – two years; Zdeno Tomko – two years, three months; Ivan Ziga Senior – two years, eight months; Stefan Ziga; Igor Pecha and Ivan Ziga Junior – 21 months each.