Arundel man jailed for New Year’s bottle attack

A 21-year-old Arundel man with nine previous convictions has been sentenced to eight months in prison for affray.

Thomas Marsh, of Kirdford Road, was sentenced in Chichester Crown Court on Friday (June 14), after pleading guilty to throwing a bottle at a group of people on a train, injuring a 19-year-old woman.

CCTV images showed Marsh on the train with two friends last New Year’s Eve at 11.30pm.

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A group of four people were travelling from Littlehampton to Hove. The defendant and his friends approached the group and Marsh made ‘rude’ and ‘homophobic’ remarks to the travellers.

Edward Hand, prosecuting, said the two men with the defendant ‘played no part’ in the incident.

Soon after the group moved to another carriage at which point the defendant spat at two of the boys in the group. He later ran to the carriage they were in and threw a glass bottle, which smashed, and injured a 19-year-old woman.

Because Marsh had a suspended sentence for GBH in 2011, he was taken into custody on February 21 and had been at Lewes prison until his court appearance last week.

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John Naylor, defending, asked the judge to give Marsh a suspended prison sentence, taking into account his early plea and remorse, and said he had a job and partner to return to.

Judge Robert Fraser said Marsh’s behaviour was ‘appalling’, but agreed to reduce his sentence by a third, accepting Marsh’s ‘remorse’ for his actions.

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