Pub-crawl attack thug spared jail by victim

Ryan Hilton, 23, was running a late-night Carnage UK drinking event for about 1,000 students when he attacked 61-year-old resident Mark Roberts, who complained about the noise.

A district judge yesterday told Hilton, a 6ft 4in nightclub bouncer, that he should go straight to prison for the assault, which happened in Bangor, North Wales.

But the judge, Miriam Shelby, agreed to suspend the jail term because Mr Roberts said he would rather see Hilton ordered to clean the streets after a Carnage UK event.

Judge Shelby said: "It is unusual to hear such a cogent plea from the victim that the offender should be spared a prison sentence."

Hilton from King Street, in Muston, Filey, North Yorkshire, was convicted of assault by Judge Shelby following a trial at Llandudno Magistrates' Court last month.

The court heard that the attack happened on March 3 last year when students were visiting pubs in Bangor under the supervision of 25 stewards.

North Wales Police had expressed concerns about the event taking place, following problems at a previous Carnage night held in the city.

Mr Roberts, a commercial diver who lives in Bangor city centre and near a number of student venues, approached Hilton to seek reassurance that he would get a good night's sleep.

Hilton responded with a foul-mouthed outburst and punched the older man on the chin with such force that he fell to the ground, banged his head and fell unconscious.

Judge Shelby gave Hilton a six-month sentence suspended for two years and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay Mr Roberts 1,500 in compensation.

She told Hilton: "You were employed by a company with an unsavoury name – Carnage UK – which is involved in making commercial profit from mass bar crawls for students in university towns.

"You told me it was your job to sort out complaints.

"Mr Roberts was a 61-year-old man living in the area directly affected that night.

"Your response to him was to abuse him verbally and punch him to the face with such force that you knocked him to the floor and he lost consciousness."

Andrew McInnes, in mitigation, said Hilton did not accept the guilty verdict.

Outside court, Mr Roberts said: "Nothing would have been served by sending him to jail – there has got to be a better way.

"I wrote to the judge saying I would like to see him carry out community service, perhaps cleaning up the streets after one of the Carnage events."

Mr Roberts told the trial he had approached Hilton shortly before 11pm that night to ask what arrangements were being made to bring the event to a peaceful end but Hilton replied by telling him to "f*** off", then walked away.

Mr Roberts, who had earlier that night attended Choral Evensong at Bangor Cathedral, said in evidence: "I wasn't quite satisfied with that response so I walked behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"My only intention was to recover his attention.

"He swung round so fast and, with his right hand, he caught me on the chin."

Hilton had claimed Mr Roberts was drunk and aggressive and he was acting in self-defence when he "pushed" the resident away from him.

He no longer works for Carnage UK and is barred from getting a job in security because of his conviction

A spokesman for Varsity Leisure Group, which owns Carnage UK, said: "We are obviously disappointed to learn of the conviction and subsequent sentencing of Mr Hilton, a former subcontractor of Varsity Leisure Group.

"We understand that he is intending to lodge an appeal."

Firm in firing line over binge-drinking outcry

IF the boasts on its website are to be believed, Carnage UK offers "quite simply the best student night ever".

Undergraduates might agree, but unsavoury incidents like Ryan Hilton's attack on Mark Roberts have earned the pub-crawl firm a bad reputation.

Its activities came under scrutiny in October

last year when Sheffield Hallam University student Philip Laing was photographed urinating on a war memorial on a Carnage event.

Laing was among 2,000 students who took part in the pub crawl in Sheffield city centre, which was one of many organised by the firm in university towns and cities.

He pleaded guilty to outraging public decency and was ordered to do community service, but District Judge Anthony Browne, sitting at Sheffield Magistrates' Court, said the case highlighted the problems of student binge-drinking.

The judge told Laing: "No one forced you to take all this drink, or forced it down you, or persuaded you to commit a criminal offence.

"You did that all by yourself and you must take responsibility.

"But all this is set against a backdrop... of a culture of drinking far too much.

"In my view something does need to be done to change this culture."

The Carnage UK website has a section entitled 'Be Safe: Stay Safe', which warns of the dangers of drinking to excess.

Tips include "Drink in moderation and do not binge" and "Always alternate alcoholic drinks with soft drinks", but the advice often goes unheeded.

Another Carnage event in Sheffield, held in February, lasted less than two hours before police were called to keep order. Students

had paid the firm 10 each for a promotional Carnage UK T-shirt whuch guaranteed them entry to five bars and a nightclub.

Despite the negative headlines, however, Carnage events have only grown in popularity.

The firm's website advertises details of activities in almost 40 university towns and cities, including Huddersfield, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield and York.

The Carnage phenomenon has grown thanks to student organisers who have agreed to promote the firm's events.

One such promoter was Hilton, who set up events like Carnage

Bangor after studying at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk.

An entry on Hilton's Friends Reunited page read: "Getting far to (sic) inebriated far too often! But then again that's what students do!"