Thug avoids prison - because they're full

Apr 3 2007

A THUG who launched unprovoked attacks on two young men in a Midland town centre was told by a judge he had avoided an immediate jail sentence because the prisons were full.

"It is an unattractive thing to say, but we have to recognise that fact," Judge Anthony Cleary told 24-year-old father-of-two Edwin Moore. "That is why it is difficult to do something constructive with someone like you, but it is prison where you richly deserve to be."

Moore, of Ferguson Drive, Kidderminster, admitted assaulting Adam Travers and Jordan Davidson in Stourbridge town centre.

He was given a 12-month jail term suspended for two years, made the subject of a two-year supervision order and ordered to carry out 200 hours community punishment.

Mark Rees, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court that for no reason Moore punched Mr Travers, knocking him unconscious with a second blow after he left a nightspot.

Mr Davidson went to the aid of his friend and he too was struck by Moore - a man with a number of previous convictions for violence.

Brian Dean, defending, said he had drunk a gallon of cider and a large number of vodkas on the evening in question.