Violent drunk threw takeaway on the floor and yelled 'say f***ing thank you' at staff

A "perfectly decent" man who transformed into a "violent liability" when drunk was finally jailed after a string of petty crimes.

Stephen McGinty, of Lingholme Road, St Helens, was described as a "Jekyll and Hyde" by his defence as he appeared in court last week, where he pleaded guilty to common assault, assaulting an emergency worker, and a public order offence for abusive behaviour. The 48-year-old had "wasted every chance" to turn his life around after repeatedly breaching suspended sentences.

His most recent offence took place at 12.30am on October 26 last year, when he went into the Captain Cook takeaway on Baldwin Street, St Helens, and became aggressive when a staff member refused to thank him for his custom. CCTV footage showed McGinty knocking his food to the floor while shouting "say f***ing thank you" before being bundled out of the shop.

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Further video footage, taken from police bodycam as McGinty was arrested outside, showed McGinty goading officers as he was arrested, saying "Go on, punch you, you f***ing idiot". He then spat at one of the officers and was pushed to the ground.

Sentencing McGinty, Judge Brian Cummings KC said: "I'm afraid you have a substantial record in terms of the number of court appearances over the years, and the number of offences and breaches. Predominately these have been dealt with at summary level (magistrates court). A small number of matters have found their way to the Crown Court.

"Certain themes emerge from your record: alcohol, either as an ingredient of offences, such as drink driving, or present as part of the circumstances of other offences. These other offences are predominantly in the form of violent offences and public order offences.

"I have been looking very closely at your position over the last three years. Since 2021, the entries show in March that year you committed offences of assault causing actual bodily harm, and a public order act. In June that year you were committed to the Crown Court, and in September you were made subject to a suspended sentence of eight months, suspended for two years, with an number of other requirements all designed to help you - an alcohol abstinence requirement, rehabilitation days and a curfew.

"Between the time of these offences in March 2021 and September, you committed two other sets of offences: assaulting an emergency worker and two counts of battery.

"That amounts to three sets of offences resulting in three overlapping (suspended sentence) orders.

"Then in March 2022, during the currency of all these orders, you committed further offences of actual bodily harm and common assault. You then received a sentence of 20 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. A few months after, in September 2022, you committed another offence of failing to provide a specimen. You received an eight week prison sentence.

"Then in February 2023 you committed an offence of battery, again in breach of the suspended sentence orders. You were dealt with for that in July 20223 and received a 12 month community order, and your suspended sentence increased to the maximum two years.

"Then the present offence on October 26 2023 was committed during the currency of that extended suspended sentence order.

"The defence urges upon me the fact that when you are not in drink, you're a perfectly decent person. But when you are in drink, you are a liability, and a violent one. The courts have tried to assist you. They have given you every chance. It's very rare, indeed it might even be unprecedented, to see the series of repeat offences with suspended sentences being made, and I suspect all of that has been done in respect of the kind of mitigation that has been presented to me today.

"None of these offences is the most serious of its kind. But you keep committing offences and doing so while subject to court orders, and in the end, the court has to take a stand, otherwise the public would rightly lose confidence in the courts."

He activated McGinty's suspended sentence, jailing him for six months, with an additional two months for the offences committed on October 26. He also made a restraining order banning him from the Captain Cook takeaway.

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