Ashley Blake victim: Assault in mind every day
He said: “I was thinking about going to university but my results were not what I was hoping for. But I’m quite happy, to be honest, because I think he’s got what he deserved. I was hoping for a prison sentence but I was not sure what length he would get.
“Two years is a long time but it just shows that justice has been done.”
Blake was jailed for two years for attacking the teenager with a wooden pole. The 40-year-old was given a further six months to run concurrently for attempting to pervert the course of justice meaning he will serve the longest sentence. The offence happened after violence broke out at the end of an 18th birthday party at Blake’s former bar The Place 2B in Chester Road, Sutton Coldfield, early on January 25.
Mr Rumfitt, defending Blake, said he stood before the court a ‘ruined man’.
“He has lost his job with the BBC and it’s a job that meant everything to him,” Mr Rumfitt said. “His career is in tatters and he will have to start all over again. It is a very severe punishment.”
Blake, who had a string of previous convictions, hugged relatives goodbye as he arrived at court. His partner Jessica Hayes broke down in tears when she heard the sentence and had to be ushered from the public gallery and comforted by her friends.
