Man ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work after admitting assault at Norwich Starbucks

A man has been ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work for assaulting a man after a fall-out about a chair in a Norwich coffee shop.

Paul Chambers, 33, of St Olaves Road, Norwich, appeared before Norwich Magistrates’ Court yesterday morning where he admitted one charge of assault and also a Bail Act offence.

Philip Charnley, prosecuting, said that the assault had been “over a fall-out over whose chair it was in Starbucks”.

He said the victim of the assault, Chris Dunhan, had gone to Starbucks, in Norwich’s St Stephens Street, with a friend on February 19, and there had been a disagreement between Mr Dunhan and Chambers about a seat before Mr Dunhan went upstairs with his friend.

Mr Charnley said Chambers then went upstairs and “grabbed him [Mr Dunhan] by the neck with both hands,” causing Mr Dunhan to feel he could not breathe for a period of time and start to black out.

Mr Charnley said that in police interview Chambers admitted he “lost all self control”.

Elizabeth Creissen, defending, said Chambers, who has one previous conviction for assault in 2009, had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to the assault at Starbucks.

She said that Chambers suffered from post traumatic stress having previously been stabbed, and that he had had no intention of committing the assault.

She said that Chambers had gone to Starbucks with his wife and children for a drink, when he was approached by Mr Dunhan about taking a seat without having bought a drink first.

She said that Chambers had said he was very upset by Mr Dunhan starting to swear in front of his wife and children and make unpleasant remarks, but that Chambers “deeply regrets” the assault.

At yesterday’s hearing, Chambers was given an 18 month community order and he was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

He was told to pay £75 in compensation and to pay a £60 victim surcharge.

He was also told that an existing community order previously given to him for a different offence would run alongside the new community order and that a Thinking Skills programme as part of the first order would include anger management.