Judge tells self-described psychopath 'we meet again'
Judge tells self-described psychopath 'we meet again'
Aaron Kerr threw away his chance to reform and was locked up
Aaron Kerr
(Image: Merseyside Police )
A judge told a self-described psychopath dad "it's unfortunate that we meet again" after the man hurled an ashtray at a woman's head in a post-christening meeting in a pub. Aaron Kerr had previously been allowed to walked free from Liverpool Crown Court after it heard he had chased a man out of a bar brandishing a knife. But Kerr threw away his second chance after setting off fire extinguishers and threatening police officers with scissors during another episode of drunken violence in a pub.
To make matters worse Kerr left another innocent victim with a bleeding injury after another drinking session, the same court heard.
In a hearing on June 11 Liverpool Crown Court heard that Kerr, of St Oswald's Avenue in Beechwood, Wirral, drank for hours in the Stork Hotel in Birkenhead on March 27 this year. Hannah Darling, prosecuting told the court he "caused a nuisance" by trespassing behind the bar, hurling drinks and igniting fire extinguishers.
After being told to get out of the premises by manager Michelle Clark the 38-year-old warned her that "he was a psychopath". Kerr snatched her phone out of her hands as she tried to ring the pub's owner and threatened to "put her in the ground", the court heard.
Kerr then grabbed another customer, Paul Watson, by the neck and pulled him to the floor and repeatedly punching him in the face. When Ms Clark and another member of the public tried to stop him Kerr told Ms Clark: "Get off my hand before I slap you."
Realising police had arrived the defendant took a pair of scissors out of his pocket and threatened to stab them. The PCs were forced to draw their tasers in order to stop him. Kerr told detectives that he "felt s***" after being shown CCTV footage of the incident, the court was told.
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The defendant subsequently went to the Coach and Horses pub in Moreton on May 17 and drunkenly put a metal ashtray onto the head of a woman named Natasha Harvey as an apparent joke. When she did the same to him he responded by throwing the blunt object at her head from across the table.
The victim was left with a wound of three to four centimetres long and one to two centimetres wide.
Interviewed afterwards Kerr said he had gone to the pub after a Christening while "intoxicated" but "wouldn't have done something if someone else hadn't started it".
His criminal record shows he had seven previous convictions for 12 offences, including an affray in 2010. He was then handed a 17-month community order with unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement by Judge David Swinnerton, the same judge who he appeared before during his latest court date, for the same charge in June last year.
This came after he chased his victim out of a pub armed with a Stanley knife.
Defending Kerr Joanne Maxwell told the court: "One can see that this is a man who is capable of staying out of trouble. There is a gap in his offending between 2010 and 2020.
"2020 is when his sister lost her life suddenly and unexpectedly, and he turned to drink. All of these offences have been fuelled by alcohol, and that is the real evil in this case. This is a man who clearly needs help. He needs a period of abstinence, and a lengthy period of abstinence."
Kerr admitted two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, affray, assault, possession of a bladed article in a public place and breaching a community order. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool wearing a navy blue Moose Knuckles jumper, he was jailed for two years.
Sentencing, Judge David Swinnerton said: "It is unfortunate that we meet again. You had demonstrated, until June 2024, an ability to stay out of trouble. That was what was in my mind when I gave you an opportunity with the community order.
"You had been out of trouble, aside from one conviction for shoplifting, for more than 14 years at that stage. But you went to the Stork Hotel bar. You got drunk. It is clear that that is your problem. You let yourself down. You have let yourself down time and time again lately through drink.
"For no real reason, you became abusive towards customers. You began punching him and continued to punch him on the floor. You persistently and repeatedly punched him. You then armed yourself with some scissors from the bar and made threats that you were going to stab the police officers when they came to try to sort you out.
"You pleaded guilty to those matters and were bailed awaiting sentence. You went to the Coach and Horses pub, where, again, you got drunk. I am pretty certain that everyone had had a drink.
"You put an ashtray upside down on her head. That was intended as a joke. That was then put back on your head, and that was not taken as a joke despite you having done exactly the same to her. You threw it with some force at her from across the table, less than a metre away. Again, you lost your temper for no good reason whatsoever other than you were in drink.
"On that occasion, I gave you an opportunity to serve a sentence in the community, which was designed to assist you and, to be fair, you made a good job of that. You have done all of the hours of unpaid work and 10 out of 20 RAR days.
"In terms of changing your ways and learning anything, the five offences for which I have to sentence you demonstrate not. I take the view that, once you have had a chance, as you had from me last year, to rehabilitate yourself in the community and you go on to commit five further offences on two occasions of a similar nature, the only appropriate sentence is one of immediate custody.
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"You will have a relatively long time now, sober and clear of alcohol. If you want to spend your life working hard and looking after your family, as you are perfectly capable of doing, you need to think carefully about how much you are drinking upon your release."
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