Thug attacked man with child's rounders bat

Thomas Marc Miller, 31, formerly of Davey Road, pleaded guilty to assault at Mansfield Magistrates’ Court via video link from prison on Tuesday.

Mark Salt, prosecuting, said Miller approached his victim at 8am in Meden Vale on October 14 last year.

He said: “He was holding a small red rounders bat and hit the man on the leg and shoulder.

“His victim saw he was going to take another swing and grabbed Miller in a bear-hug.”

Deborah Bell, mitigating, said Miller found himself in Meden Vale because he was looking for his girlfriend.

“He had been told that she was with the man he attacked and that she may have taken an overdose of tablets,” she said. “As a result he was understandably very upset.

“He is of quite small stature and is nicknamed ‘Little Tom.’”

She said the man he attacked was much bigger, adding: “Mr Miller feared a confrontation so he took a bat from a friend’s address. He had no intention of using it but does accept he did use it, but it wasn’t planned.”

She said the attack was broken up in ‘a matter of minutes’ and Miller’s victim later gave him a lift back to Mansfield.

“They seem to have been relatively friendly,” she said.

The court heard Miller had pleaded to guilty to cannabis possession a week before the assault and had received an 18 week suspended sentence.

He was on remand and awaiting trial in July for a burglary charge.

Magistrates sentenced him to 18 weeks for the assault and activated 12 weeks of the suspended sentence, so he must serve a total of 30 weeks.

He was given a 12 month supervision order on his release and ordered to pay £75 compensation to the man he battered.