A brawl in the Royal Square and Library Place between Paul David William Le Geyt (27) and John Barry L’Enfant (24) on the evening of 5 October was described as the ‘most violent attack I have ever seen’ by a witness.
Le Geyt, who has a long criminal background, was jailed for 15 months after admitting grave and criminal assault and affray.
L’Enfant, who also has previous convictions, albeit not recently, received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to affray.
The fighting between the two men started in the Royal Square after Le Geyt approached a friend of L’Enfant’s and verbally abused and threatened him. CCTV showed a series of scuffles broke out between all three men.
The violence continued into Library Place where a member of the public filmed the defendants pushing, punching and grabbing each other repeatedly.
The court heard that an onlooker described it as ‘the most violent attack I have ever seen…it sounded like someone’s head was going to split open’.
Further CCTV footage captured Le Geyt carrying a plastic road-traffic sign pole from Bond Street into Mulcaster Street before running up behind L’Enfant, who was with his two friends, and striking him across the back.
Le Geyt was caught shortly afterwards by a police officer who found him hiding in a bush at the Weighbridge after running away. L’Enfant was arrested outside Mimosa nightclub.
Crown Adocate Richard Pedley said that prison was an ‘inevitable’ consequence for Le Geyt and moved for him to be jailed for 18 months.
He suggested that L’Enfant should receive a suspended sentence or community service.
Advocate Ian Jones, representing Le Geyt, said that prison officers had noticed ‘more maturity’ in his client during his period on remand.
He added that he had shown remorse at ‘dragging his family’s name through the mud’.
Advocate Julian Gollop, representing L’Enfant, said that his client’s actions were an ‘isolated incident’, which would ‘not be repeated’.
Delivering sentencing, the Deputy Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq, said that ‘drunken assaults’ in St Helier were taken ‘very seriously’ by the Royal Court.
‘This was clearly a very violent exchange, involving punches, kicks and grabs,’ he said.
He added that the court wanted to offer Le Geyt some ‘encouragement’ for the remorse he has shown, so imposed a lesser sentence than that requested by the Crown.
Jurats Paul Nicolle and Pam Pitman were sitting.
