Violent thug is jailed

In an unprovoked rampage in Newtown, Joshua Corless threw a burst drinks can at a man, and a jagged shard of metal sticking out of it caused an horrific eye injury.

A court heard that a total of 11 people suffered injuries when they were either punched or hit with a wooden plank as Wigan thug Joshua Corless rang amok outside a Chorley pub.

Just days later Corless, of Inward Drive, Shevington, inflicted further injury on a man when he threw a damaged drinks can into his face, hitting him in the eye.

The 20-year-old from Shevington had previously pleaded guilty to the Newtown attack on Dale Coffrey, which took place outside the Spar shop in Scot Lane when he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this month.

But he was sentenced for that and also the separate Chorley incidents of affray, GBH and causing actual bodily harm at Preston Crown Court this week.

The hearing was told that Corless pulled up outside the Newtown Spar store in a white Mercedes car on the evening of Friday January 15 this year and he asked Mr Coffrey if he could buy a cigarette from him.

When Mr Coffrey said “no,” Corless flung the damaged Pepsi can at him, a shard of metal sticking out of it grashing his face.

The hearing was told that the bleeding victim tried to take his assailant’s picture with his mobile phone camera but Corless pulled his hood around his face to disguise himself.

However, Mr Coffrey did manage to make a note of the Mercedes’s registration number and Corless was later arrested on suspicion of assault while Mr Coffrey underwent treatment for an eye injury at hospital.

The Preston hearing was told that the incident in Coppull, outside the Alison Arms in Preston Road, had happened just six days earlier, on Saturday January 9.

Corless was said to have punched a number of people and was running around outside the pub in a highly aggressive state.

Prosecutors said that various members of the public tried to calm him down but he continued to assault further victims.

By the time he was subdued a total of 11 people had been assaulted, suffering a range of injuries of varying seriousness.

Witnesses said that during the incident, Corless took hold of a piece of wood and swung it around, making contact with some of the injured people.

With regard to the three charges he was facing from the Coppull rampage, Corless had initially denied causing grievous bodily and affray - for which he received 20 and seven months’ detention in the young offenders’ institution respectively - but later changed his plea to guilty.

But he admitted causing actual bodily harm from the outset and was given a nine-month sentence for that crime.

Corless, who had been remanded in custody pending his sentence, was given 12 months for the attack on Mr Coffrey.

And the judge ordered that all four sentences - which came to a total of four years’ detention - be served consecutively rather than concurrently.