A POWYS 21-year-old whose punch left a man seriously injured with a fractured skull has been told he faces significant jail time, despite being cleared of biting the ear of another man.
A jury of eight women and four men took around 55 minutes to find Kenneth Jones, 21 and of Knighton, not guilty of actual bodily harm against Jonathan Dace on June 9 last year.
But he will be sentenced on Thursday, February 29, for the grievous bodily harm of Jamie Selvey – Dace’s brother – whose skull he fractured in the incident at the Bell Hotel in Newtown.
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Jones told the court that he was a recovering cocaine addict and that his previous offending was related to not being able "score a fix", leading to his recovery and one year sober.
He told the court that he had minimal interaction with Mr Selvey but knew of him as Mr Dace’s brother. He said he regretted punching him.
Jones said the incident stemmed from being "pestered to the point that all conversation was about cocaine" by the brothers and, as a recovering cocaine user, he wanted nothing to do with it.
He said that he also tried to treat his victim afterwards by putting him in the recovery position so that blood did not block his airwaves.
He also denied biting Mr Dace, stating that he had no sight or taste of blood on his lips.
In cross-examination, prosecutor Simon Rogers called Jones a bully for his attack on Mr Selvey and said he wanted to show his close combat training off against the man.
Jones admitted he had done the wrong thing in punching his victim, but denied biting Mr Dace, and was cleared of that offence after a two-day trial in front of Judge Niclas Parry.
Jack Jones, who had been summoned to the court by Judge Parry after initially refusing to give evidence, had told the court that he saw the defendant bite and ‘clamp on’ to the ear of Mr Dace for around five seconds and that he had also thrown punches.
He also claimed Jones had been ‘all anger and violence’ towards the claimant Mr Dace.
But defence barrister Philip Clemo used evidence given by Mr Whitehead to say that Jack Jones was not at the scene and accused him of lying, adding that he only came to give evidence because he was legally summoned to.
Judge Parry ordered a pre-sentence report ahead of the February hearing but warned Kenneth Jones that he faces significant custody time.
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