Thug knocks out woman outside Ken's Fried Chicken

Drunk Adam Lee, 26, got ‘verbally aggressive’ at Ken’s Fried Chicken in Commercial Road, Portsmouth, before being ejected at 11.45pm.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard he started ‘engaging’ with one male customer who had just left the chicken shop.

Christoper Stopa, prosecuting, said Lee then ‘struck’ the unknown man to the ground, and he was knocked unconscious. That victim eventually got up and left but has never been traced.

‘He got in from a club, he was heavily in drink,’ Mr Stopa said of Lee.

Mr Stopa said: ‘When they didn’t have what he wanted he became verbally aggressive.’

It was after he was ejected that Lee rounded on two friends, a man and woman, who happened to be outside.

Mr Stopa said: ‘He attacks (the man) which results in him sustaining a fractured jaw and (the woman) being punched and knocked unconscious. When police arrived a large crowd gathered.’

Unemployed Lee admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm in relation to the attack on the man, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to the woman.

The male victim’s jaw was broken on the left and right side, with a plate surgically fitted to the right side.

He needed further surgery to later remove the plate but the wound became infected.

In a victim personal statement, the woman said she had ‘gone through the incident’ in her head several times but could not think why Lee attacked her ‘for no reason’.

‘It’s not right that you can’t go out without worrying what might happen,’ she said.

The woman was knocked to the ground with a single punch, and left unconscious.

Lee of Springwell Avenue, Rickmansworth, had been sentenced for a ‘serious’ driving offence at Aylesbury Crown Court and released from jail since he attacked the three people in Portsmouth on September 23 last year.

Sentencing, judge Stephen Climie said if he had been dealing with Lee he would have jailed him to consecutive terms for the assaults and the driving offence.

But he sentenced Lee, who hopes to become a trainee barber in a government-backed scheme, to a 21-month jail term suspended for two years.

Lee must pay £1,500 compensation to the male victim, and £500 to the woman. He must complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

Addressing Lee in the secure dock on Friday, judge Climie said: ‘The plea is the only mitigation.’