Christopher Eaton (Image: South Wales Police)
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A Swansea man who was part of a group of six that turned on a shopworker in the city centre has been jailed for 32 months, with a judge branding him the sort of “lout” who saddles Swansea with “an undeserved bad reputation”.
Christopher Eaton, 41, of Townhill Road, Townhill, was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court for a run of offences spanning criminal damage, carrying a knife, the street disorder, and an assault on his partner.
The confrontation on Union Street
Staff at Hanson men’s clothing shop grew suspicious of a man browsing the store on March 30 and challenged him. He left in a hurry, joining a group sitting on a bench outside on Union Street – Eaton among them.
A staff member and the shop’s manager followed him out and spotted a woman in the group clutching a bag of T-shirts taken moments earlier from the shelves. The worker who went over to reclaim the bag succeeded in getting the stolen stock back, but was met with a torrent of abuse.
What followed, prosecutor Dean Pulling told the court, was a six-on-one assault: men and women in the group tried to “goad him” into fighting before turning on him, punching and kicking him while passers-by looked on. One of the women racially abused him.
Mr Pulling said Eaton played his part in the group attack and “was clearly intent on using violence or trying to provoke violence”.
The rider who stopped it
The beating ended when a cycle delivery rider passing by dismounted and waded in to help. City centre rangers reached the scene shortly afterwards and got the shopworker back inside the store, away from the group. All six were traced and arrested in the days that followed. Eaton told officers in interview that he had been attempting to break up the violence.
A wider run of offending
The Union Street disorder sat in the middle of a sequence of offences.
It began on January 3, when Eaton was asked to leave a McDonald’s in the city centre over behaviour the court heard was “disruptive, loud, and abusive”. He dug his heels in at first, but left after the manager stepped in and refunded his order. Seconds later he put a glass panel through in the restaurant door, leaving damage costing north of £1,000.
Police encountered him again on February 23 after calls from members of the public worried about an intoxicated, bleeding man near Swansea Marina. Officers found Eaton carrying a knife, which he said he had used to hurt himself. He fought the arrest and had to be brought to the ground and handcuffed, later claiming the blade was for DIY and that anything under three inches was lawful. He was charged and bailed.
A week after being bailed over the Union Street incident, Eaton punched his partner repeatedly in the face. A neighbour raised the alarm after hearing “shouts and slaps” through the wall.
Previous convictions
Eaton’s record already included arson, drugs and driving matters, racially-aggravated public disorder, affray, possession of bladed articles, and inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent – the last of those involving a sustained beating that left his victim paralysed from the neck down.
Mitigation and sentence
Andrew Evans, defending, said his client accepts the way he has been living is “wholly antisocial”, and expressed hope that Eaton would take up whatever support was on offer during the custodial term he knew was coming.
Eaton had earlier admitted criminal damage, affray, and battery, and had been convicted of possession of a bladed article following a magistrates’ court trial.
Judge Huw Rees said the public were entitled to use the streets of Swansea without encountering “louts” behaving as the court had heard, and that it was people like Eaton who give the city “an undeserved bad reputation”.
Credit for the guilty pleas brought the total to 32 months. Eaton will serve up to half of that behind bars before release on licence for the remainder.
Award recommended for bystander
Judge Rees asked that the delivery rider receive a £500 High Sheriff award, recognising the public spiritedness he showed in bringing the attack to an end.
The five others involved in the affray had already been dealt with at magistrates’ court – a process the court heard had been “piecemeal” and a “not very coherent sentencing exercise”.
