Thug escapes jail after attack in Winchester (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Thug escapes jail after attack in Winchester

5:30pm Wednesday 31st March 2010 in Crime By Ash Bolton

A THUG who attacked a teenager at a Winchester bar has been given a 12-month suspended sentence.

Keith Huxham, 21, punched Southampton student Oliver Budden as he was leaving Bar 3One in The Square in the early hours of Good Friday last year.

A jury convicted Huxham of carrying out the attack, which left his 18-year-old victim with a fractured nose and eye socket. He also had to have a metal plate inserted into his face.

Judge Keith Cutler, CBE, described the attack as a 'malicious assault'.

He said: “You will know that courts are very worried about the number of outbreaks of violence late at night.

“So I have a duty to send a message out that people who behave violently on the streets of Winchester need to be taught a lesson.

“The sentence is suspended so that you have the opportunity to show me that you can live for the next two-years without committing any other offences.”

Huxham, of Lyde Close, Basingstoke, claimed he acted in self-defence.

The unemployed painter and decorator was ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work and pay his victim £1,200 in compensation. His 12-month sentence was suspended for two years.