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Wednesday, December 09, 2020

Community orders handed out following disorder at Stockport match

Two further people have been sentenced for their part in the trouble that ensued before and after Hereford's match against Stockport last year.

According to the Hereford Times, Billy Arran Jensen, aged 27, punched a man and confronted police following the game that took place at Edgar Street in April 2019.

Prosecuting barrister Graham Russell told Worcester Crown Court on Monday there seemed no reason for Jenson's attack on the unidentified man, which was caught on camera. The paper report that, as police tried to keep the two sets of fans apart on the City Link Road after the match, Jenson, of Woodward Avenue in Hereford, was verbally abusive to an officer.

Michael Aspinall, defending Jensen, said a recent 16-week prison sentence for an unrelated offence had given him the impetus to turn his life around, but said that his behaviour was shocking. Mr Aspinall added that his client wasn't a supporter of either club but was at the game and had been drinking and when rocks were thrown, he 'lashed out in a ridiculously stupid manner'.

Meanwhile, the HT have reported that Guy Nathan Cooke, 19, was abusive to a security guard when he was told to get down from a wall amid celebrations after Hereford scored.

Mr Russell said that Cooke, of Kingsway in Hereford, was filmed picking up a rock after the match and throwing it across the road towards Stockport coaches, one of which had a window broken during the violence.

Mr Russell said that there had also been a flare-up of violence before the match in Commercial Road, but neither men were involved.

Emily Heggadon, for Cooke, said the conviction meant he lost his job at Hereford's Brookfield School. She added he had matured since, and was aged 17 at the time of the offences. He also had a good reference from Hereford FC.

Judge James Burbidge QC gave both credit for early guilty pleas and handed 'lightly convicted' Cooke an 18-month community order with 100 hours unpaid work, and told him to pay £200 costs and a victim surcharge fee for one count of violent disorder and one of affray.

For one count of violent disorder, the paper report that Jensen was 'perilously close' to a custodial sentence, but the judge gave him a three-year community order as he had already served a prison sentence this year.

He was also told to do 100 hours unpaid work, pay a victim surcharge fee and was made subject of a football banning order for five years.