Boxing coach choked best friend at cinema and threatened to kill him

A boxing coach launched a brutal attack on his best friend at a Haverfordwest cinema, putting him in a chokehold and threatening: “Have you got any last words because I am going to kill you”.

Callum James, 20, punched, headbutted, kicked and stamped on his victim during a trip to the cinema on 25th May last year. After being arrested, he boasted to police that he had “f*cking leathered” his best friend.

Swansea Crown Court heard that James and his friend – who had known each other since the age of two and described themselves as best friends – went to watch a film together. The friend left the auditorium to speak to his girlfriend on the phone and was followed out by James.

Words were exchanged between the pair, during which the friend struck James in the face. The defendant then removed his arm from the sling it was in and ran at his friend, kicking and punching him to the floor.

James kicked, punched and stamped on the victim as he lay on the ground before getting on top of him and putting him in a chokehold. He told his friend: “Have you got any last words because I am going to kill you” before adding: “Nobody messes with me”.

Cinema staff called police and when officers arrived, James told them he had taken his sling off, thrown his friend to the floor and then “stamped all over him and I bust his face” and “just kicked the f*** out of him” and “f***ing leathered him”. He made stamping gestures with his feet whilst speaking to officers.

The victim was taken to hospital where he was found to be dazed and suffering with memory loss, bruising and swelling to his face, and a wound near one eye.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, he said he now rarely left his flat and was “a shell of my former self”. He said the pair had always been “inseparable” and the worst part of the incident had been the loss of his best friend. He added that the scar he had been left with was a daily reminder of what happened, saying: “If he could do it to me, he could do it to anyone”.

James, of Bush Street, Pembroke Dock, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. He has no previous convictions.

His barrister Stuart John said it was clear from the pre-sentence report that James had considered the complainant to be “almost a brother” and felt shame and remorse for what he’d done. He said the “life-long friends” had got into an argument which quickly escalated, and that when James spoke to officers at the scene “he was very much in a rage”.

The court heard there were a “great deal of positives” in James’ life including a supportive family, and that spending a week on remand had been a “salutary lesson” for him. The loss of his liberty had been “extremely traumatic”.

Judge Huw Rees said that following what seemed to be some “piffling argument” about a girlfriend, James launched a “vicious assault” on his best friend. He said anyone who kicked or stamped on another person richly deserved detention, and he hoped James had learned his lesson from his week in custody.

The judge noted that James was working towards his level one and two amateur boxing training coach qualifications and told him: “This violence has got nothing to do with boxing. Boxing is a disciplined sport. You should have known better.”

With a one-quarter discount for his guilty plea, James was sentenced to 18 months detention in a young offenders institution, suspended for 18 months. He was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and a mental health treatment requirement, and must also do 250 hours of unpaid work in the community.

James was also made subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting his victim for the next five years.