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Tuesday, August 05, 2008, 09:08
Exeter Crown Court heard the brothers were playing pool in a Torbay pub late at night when an argument broke out over whether one of them had pinched another's pint of beer.
Prosecutor Martin Kenny said that led to a scuffle which escalated into a full scale fight and was captured on close circuit surveillance cameras.
Joseph McCaskie, 18, was knocked to the floor and as he was being kicked, his brother Anthony, 24, armed himself with a pool cue and set about 18-year-old Shane Smyth causing him a serious injury which left him blinded in one eye.
Other people intervened to pull the fighting brothers apart before the police arrived and put a stop to the incident.
The prosecutor said all four defendants had no previous convictions and since the incident in May of last year they had not come to the attention of the police again.
Mitigating for Anthony McCaskie, Mary McCarthy said despite the injury caused to Shane Smyth, there was no lasting hostility between the two sets of brothers.
Her client was expecting to be promoted from private to lance corporal in September and having seen service in Iraq, was off to Afghanistan in October.
He was full of remorse, had apologised at the time and had over reacted to protect his brother.
For the brother, Rupert Taylor said Joseph was an apprentice carpenter who had been out with his brother celebrating his return from Iraq and it was the only time he had been in trouble.
Ruth Armstrong, for Shane Smyth, said his loss of sight in one eye would act as a permanent reminder of what had happened that night.
She said Aaron Smyth was a student who was waiting to go to Bristol University in September.
Anthony McCaskie and Joseph McCaskie, both of Colley Crescent, Paignton; 24-year-old Aaron Smyth, of Palace Avenue, Paignton; and 18-year-old Shane Smyth of Hoyles Road, Paignton, all pleaded guilty to a charge of affray.
Anthony McCaskie was fined £1,000, Joseph £750 and the Smyth brothers £600 each.
Judge Graham Cottle said he drew a distinction between this incident which, although serious, took place between four people in each other's company and an incident out in the streets where members of the public were presented with the spectacle of young men fighting unlawfully.
“The background to this was they were playing pool quite happily until an argument broke out over whether someone pinched someone else's pint. Words were exchanged and then the fighting started,” said the Judge.
Earlier when it appeared there might be a trial, Judge Cottle having read the interview statements, told counsel for all four defendants: “Realism seems to have completely disappeared from the minds of your clients.”
He told the two sets of brothers: “Go outside and talk sensibly among each other about this case.
“With the assistance of your lawyers you have a very careful think about the situation you are in because it won't go away.”
It was following those comments that acceptable pleas were forthcoming and the need for an expensive trial avoided.
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