Exeter city centre menace kicked victim in the face

A 'Sidwell Street bully' has been spared jailed for beating up a man in public. David Wilkie, 45, kicked his victim in the face during a drunken assault.

The defendant, a street drinker, has a history of violence, Exeter Crown Court was told. He was convicted earlier this year of a spree of incidents which included knocking a man out outside McDonald's and battering another in Cathedral Green.

Judge David Evans said: "You are a bully within the street attached community."

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But he claimed to have turned a corner in his life. Wilkie admitted his latest offences of battery and breaching a community order given to him in July. He received a suspended sentence with an alcohol treatment requirement.

The assault happened on August 8. The victim was sat on the pavement in Sidwell Street drinking with friends when Wilkie approached and started arguing about money. He crouched down and punched the man in the face. He then kicked him to the body and to the face.

The victim told police officers in the area that he couldn't see out of his left eye and was unable to hear. Wilkie was arrested.

The defendant, of Smythen Street, has 40 previous crimes on his record committed between 2002 and 2024, many for similar offences committed in the city centre.

In July he was given a three-year community order for GBH. On New Year's Day outside McDonald's Wilkie punched another street drinker from behind, leaving him flattened on the pavement.

A few months before that he attacked a man who was sleeping on Cathedral Green near The Ivy. In between those offences he assaulted two security guards at Tesco, helped himself to hundreds of pounds worth of booze from Marks & Spencer and punched a woman in the face.

Bathsheba Cassel, defending, said probation were willing to work with him and had presented an "extremely impressive" report that does not show him to be a bully and points to genuine changes in his attitude.

She said the last time he left prison he had nowhere to live and no money.

Judge Evans said: "Until the probation service provided a positive report including alcohol treatment I was going to send you straight to prison because over the last several months you've repeatedly inflicted physical pain and psychological stresses on other people by bullying.

"When someone does it repeatedly there is no excuse of saying 'I was just drunk'. That's no consolation for the people you thump and kick."

Wilkie was given a 16-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months with a six-month alcohol treatment requirement.