Chesterfield gang carried out '˜terrifying' pitched battle in city centre as shoppers looked on

A gang of friends from Chesterfield carried out a pitched battle in the middle of a city, throwing punches and kicks while horrified shoppers looked on.

Some of the group of seven, almost all from Chesterfield, picked up and threw chairs around outside a pub following a disagreement in a pedestrianised area of Lincoln.

CCTV footage, played at Derby Crown Court, showed the men, who are all in their 20s, play a variety of roles in the violence as women pull their onlooking children away from the melee.

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Now one of them has been jailed while others have escaped custody “by the skin of their teeth” after they all pleaded guilty to affray.

Sentencing them, Recorder Adrian Reynolds said: “It is apparent from the CCTV that people were terrified and upset by what you lot were doing.

“Fuelled by drink you were brawling, throwing chairs, kicks, and punches and people could have been seriously injured. It was disgraceful and inexcusable.”

James Bide-Thomas said the fight broke out at around 4.30pm outside the Slug and Lettuce pub in Lincoln High Street on October 7 last year.

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He said that, at the time, there was a football match going on between Lincoln City and Chesterfield but although six of the seven men live in Chesterfield, it was not football-related.

Mr Bide-Thomas said: “The group were inside the pub and a regular, who has never been identified, was ejected by the doormen.

“This group went outside and that is where the trouble began.”

The CCTV shows Sam Whitehead throw the first punch and then the others join in aiming punches and kicks at other men in front of shoppers.

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The whole incident lasted around two minutes before the group dispersed.

Mr Bide-Thomas said Derbyshire police put out a media appeal with images of a number of men on the CCTV and the seven defendants were identified.

He said that, after being arrested, all of the seven answered “no comment” when they were interviewed.

They were originally charged with violent disorder but this was later downscaled to affray which they all admitted.

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Matthew Kirk, 29, of Manor Grove, Worksop, who has a number of previous convictions including affray, assaulting a police officer and possessing a bladed article, was jailed for a year.

All of the other men were handed suspended sentences with Recorder Reynolds telling them they had avoided prison terms “by the skin of the their teeth”.

Alex Marriott, 24, of Forge Drive, Chesterfield, was handed a 12-month jail term, suspended for a year and was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and pay a £500 fine.

Jamie Simpson, 28, of Morris Avenue, Newbold, Chesterfield, was handed a 12-month jail term, suspended for a year and was ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and pay a £500 fine.

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Daniel Taylor-Beard, 23, of Jawbones Hill, Chesterfield, who works for a precision engineering firm, was handed a 12-month jail term, suspended for a year and was ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and pay a £500 fine.

Sam Whitehead, 26, of Pennine Way, Loundsley Green, Chesterfield, a bricklayer, was handed a 12-month jail term, suspended for a year and was ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and pay a £500 fine.

Callum Eyre, 25, of Dale Bank Crescent, New Whittington, Chesterfield, was handed a 12-month jail term, suspended for a year and was ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and pay a £500 fine.

And Oliver Bates, 22, of Morris Avenue, Newbold, Chesterfield, was handed a 12-month jail term, suspended for a year and was ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and pay a £500 fine.