A group has been jailed for punching TWO bridesmaids during a booze-fuelled wedding from hell.
John Campbell, 27, admitted he ‘flipped’ while high on booze and cocaine, punching Rachel Walsh, 23, and then mother-of-two Samantha Dewar, 26.
His new bride Nicola, 26, wearing a white wedding dress with 6ft train, watched her best friend Samantha punched to the ground as her big day turned violent in the car park of the Masonic Hall in Macclesfield.
Jailing Campbell for 12 months, Judge Roger Dutton said he had punched Samantha with ‘some ferocity’ as it smashed her cheekbone.
Prosecutor Jayne Morris told Chester Crown Court how the September 12 drink-fuelled wedding reception turned sour at around 1am in the car park.
Miss Dewar went out of the front entrance of the hall when she heard shouting and another bridesmaid, Rachel Walsh, ‘upset and crying’ after she had been punched by Campbell, who ‘looked angry and had his face screwed up’, the court heard.
Ms Walsh vomited and a male wedding guest tried to calm Campbell, an apprentice printer, in vain.
Prosecutor Ms Morris told the court: “Eventually the defendant was escorted away by another male. Miss Dewar then approached the defendant and asked what had been going on. He then turned to face her and without warning punched her to the left side of her face and as a result of the blow she fell backwards. The next thing that she recalls is her being on her back with her friend over her.”
Miss Dewar, who the court heard was also drunk, was sick in the car park and was later taken to Macclesfield District General Hospital before being transferred to Wythenshawe Hospital.
She was x-rayed and had a CT scan which revealed a fracture to her left cheekbone.
Surgeons operated and inserted a metal place inside her face, the court heard.
In a victim impact statement read out to the court, Miss Dewar said she still felt numbness in her face four months after the attack.
She said: “I have been extremely anxious and my sleep has been affected. I have trouble sleeping and when I do fal asleep I have bad dreams and wake up crying.”
The attack left her worried about ‘bumping into’ Campbell and fearful about people seeing her facial injury.
She said she was ‘no longer friends’ with the bride who she had known since they were at Tytherington High School together.
“I’m upset and sad having lost the my relationship with her,” she said.
The court heard that the other bridesmaid, Miss Walsh, had not provided police with a statement about the attack on her.
When Campbell was arrested, he told police he had been run over by a car and admitted he had ‘a lot to drink’ and had snorted cocaine, the court was told.
He told officers he been having an argument with his new wife about driving a car and that he ‘flipped’.
He admitted he was annoyed that Miss Dewar was ‘getting involved’ and that he was ‘ashamed of himself’.
CCTV played in court showed Campbell punching Miss Dewar to the floor and his new bride running over. It also showed the bride and groom arguing moments before.
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The court heard Campbell had four previous convictions for ten offences, three for violence aimed at his ex-partner.
David Morton, defending, handed a letter to the judge which expressed ‘heartfelt regret’ for the defendant’s actions.
“He recognised that alcohol and him don’t mix and would not mix in the future. This was his wedding night and particularly embarrassing and hugely regrettable not just because of his predicament but also the unintended injury which he didn’t realise was so serious,” said Mr Morton.
He told the court his client had suffered ‘some goading, saw red and lost control briefly’.
Campbell had later been knocked over by Miss Dewar’s husband’s 4x4 and was ‘set upon’ and required treatment in hospital, according to Mr Morton.
The court heard her husband was arrested although no charges were brought.
Campbell, of Queens Avenue in Macclesfield, was jailed for 12 months after he admitted GBH.
Judge Roger Dutton told him: “You pleaded guilty to causing serious injury to this lady in a criminal assault. This was your wedding day. At the end of it in the car park there was some form of disagreement involving a number of people.”
The judge noted the defendant had three previous convictions for violence and said: “I take the view that custody is inevitable in this case.”
Campbell nodded at the judge as he was jailed before being taken down by the dock officers to begin his sentence as members of his family watched from the public gallery.
