Man jailed for Honiton pub attack

A visitor has been jailed for calling mourners at a wake at a Honiton pub ‘mud munchers’ and glassing a customer who asked him to leave.

Dean Wicks was working on a roofing contract in the town when he became loud and obnoxious at the Volunteer pub at a time when a family wake was in progress.

He called the other customers ‘mud munchers’ - an apparent reference to Devon being less sophisticated than his home town of Watford.

He had been trying to provoke a fight with locals and turned violent when he was asked to leave.

The landlord allowed him and two workmates to take their drinks with them but Wicks threw his glass at one of the locals who was escorting him out.

He followed up by grabbing one of his friend’s glasses and throwing that as well, with one of them hitting his victim.

He had been acting as peacemaker and was trying to calm down the situation but was left with a gash on his head which has left a permanent scar.

Wicks, aged 30, of Watford, admitted wounding and was jailed for eight months by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him:”Your behaviour at the Volunteer pub was rude, provocative and confrontational at a particularly sensitive time when a wake was taking place.

“You were offensive to the locals in the pub and (the victim) tried to act as peacemaker and the landlord showed you the courtesy of allowing you to leave with your drinks.

“The courtesy was misplaced because a short time later you threw a glass at the victim and then another glass. This sentence cannot be suspended because of the use of not one glass but two, which you threw at a man who was acting as a peacemaker.”

Brian Fitzherbert, prosecuting, said Wicks was in the pub on the evening of November 8 last year when he became loud and obnoxious and tried to pick a fight with locals.

Mr Fitzherbert said: ”He was particularly rude to a group who were in the pub for a wake, calling them mud munchers, a reference to it being a rural area.”

He was asked to leave and threw two glasses at his victim, one of which hit his face and caused a two centimetre cut.

He made a victim statement saying he was now anxious about going out, felt the scar made him look like a thug, and was thinking of leaving Honiton because he no longer felt it was a safe place to bring up his family.

Angharad Hughes, defending, said Wicks is a roofer who was in Devon for work. He has caring responsibilities for his parents, who are both in poor health, and for two children and a step child.

She said others would suffer more than him if he was sent straight into custody.