A man lay in wait outside a bar and attacked a DJ at the end of the night with a large coffee mug. Ash Gilmore had been ejected from the premises before arming himself with the cup and returning to the pub looking for a member of staff.
A judge told the father-of-five that he had hidden himself outside the bar “like a thief in the night” before hitting his victim in the face with the mug while in a “drunken stupor”. The DJ was left bleeding was a gash above the eye and to the eye lid.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that the night of February 29, 2023, the complainant in the case was DJing at Bar 46 in Bridge Street in Aberystwyth as she had done for a number of years. He said also in the bar was the defendant Gilmore who was not part of the bar’s “usual student crowd”. In fact he was from Birmingham and working and staying in the town. The court heard the defendant’s conduct began to cause concern and at one stage the DJ had to leave the turntables to talk to him due to the way was behaving towards bar staff. The defendant’s behaviour continued to deteriorate and after he became involved in an altercation with a man during which he picked up a chair he was ejected by staff at 11.45pm. The court heard Gilmore shouted threats to staff and tried to re-enter the bar but was prevented from doing so and walked off.
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However around half an hour later 31-year-old Gilmore returned to the are with another male and the pair hid behind a car parked on the street outside the bar. The defendant was armed with a large coffee mug. The prosecutor said shortly afterwards the DJ left the bar and got into her car. As she sat in the driver’s seat Gilmore and the unknown male approached and grabbed the driver’s door to prevent it being closed. The defendant confronted the DJ and demanded to know if the police were looking for him. The DJ said: “No”. With that Gilmore stuck his victim in the face with the mug a number of times causing a gash above the eye which immediately started bleeding. The defendant then walked off, smashing the mug on the car as he did.
The injured DJ returned to Bar 46 and the police were contacted. The court heard the victim subsequently went to Bronglais Hospital where a 2cm laceration above the eye and on the eyelid was cleaned and closed. Meanwhile police had been able to track the defendant via CCTV to the hotel in South Street where he was staying. Gilmore was described as being “intoxicated and aggressive” when located by officers. He was found with a quantity of cannabis. In his subsequent interview Gilmore said he had been drinking at the pier with friends and smoking cannabis before going to Bar 46. He accepted being ejected from the bar and said he had gone back to his hotel before returning to the pub. He admitted being angry and punching someone he saw leaving the bar.
The victim read a statement to the court which detailed the impact of the attack. The DJ said she had been left wondering whether she had been assaulted because she was transgender. She said the incident had destroyed her self-confidence and left her suffering with panic attacks and she said she felt like she was “trapped in a nightmare”.
Ash Gilmore, of Newhall Road, Rowley Regis, Birmingham, had previously pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter here.
Judge Huw Rees told Gilmore that after being rightly ejected from the bar he had hidden behind a parked car in the street “like a thief in the night” and lain in wait “for somebody who you regarded, in your drunken stupor, as being responsible for you being ejected”. He said the assault that followed had clearly caused both physical and psychological injuries to the victim.
The judge said he had read a pre-sentence report on the defendant and said he accepted the assault was out of character. He said Gilmore supported five children and if he were to send the defendant straight to prison the children would lose that support and his presence and he said in all the circumstances he was prepared to take the “exceptional course of action” of imposing a suspended sentence. With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Gilmore was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for 12 months and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and to complete 180 hours of unpaid work. The defendant was also ordered to pay his victim £1,740 in compensation. The defendant’s possession of cannabis had previously been dealt with by an out-of-court disposal.
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