Pub doorman punched customer at Empire in Belfast

John Latimer was due to stand trial at Belfast Crown Court on a charge of causing actual bodily harm to the customer in the early hours of August 17, 2016 after he initially denied the offence.

However, after a jury was sworn, Latimer’s barrister asked that his client be re-arraigned. When the charge was put to him again, the 34-year old replied “guilty.”

From Cloverhill Drive in Bangor, at the time of the incident, Latimer had been working as a doorman for 11 years. His barrister Barry Gibson said that as a result of this case, Latimer has since “drawn a line” under this career choise and is starting a new job next week.

Prior to fining Latimer, Judge Patricia Smyth was told by prosecutor Simon Jenkins that the assault occurred at the Empire on Botanic Avenue.

As a customer was making his way from the downstairs bar out to the smoking area, he was told by door staff that he was unable to take his drink outside.

The court heard the customer “was not agreeable to that course of action”, and when Latimer took the drink off the customer, he pushed the doorman. During the short altercation, Latimer punched the customer once in the face, which caused him to fall back and hit his head off steps which rendered him unconscious.

CCTV footage played to the court showed Latimer offering immediate assistance to the customer, who sustained a swollen lip jfrom the punch and a head wound from the fall. He was treated for his injuries at the scene.

After he was arrested, Latimer said he acted in self-defence to prevent himself from being struck. However, Mr Jenkins told the court that by pleading guilty, Latimer has accepted the force he used “went a little too far.”

Barry Gibson, the barrister representing Latimer, said his client was a hard-working father of three whose wife was expecting their fourth child this week.

Mr Gibson said Latimer’s former job as a doorman meant “dealing with people who have taken too much alcohol” which resulted in incidents such as this - where “something happens very quickly ... which has consequences for the door staff.”

The barrister also told Judge Smyth that two independent witnesses saw a “drunk male swinging” at a bouncer.

Branding the job undertaken by doorstaff as one which bears great responsibility, Judge Smyth said that while the incident marked the “first time anything like this occurred” in Latimer’s 11 years as a doorman, it was still a serious offence.