Nathan Bantick wore a Santa hat as he punched two women, claiming he hadn’t had his full half hour – now he’s behind bars again
09:06, 05 Feb 2026
Nathan Bantick(Image: South Wales Police)
A former Royal Marine sexually assaulted a teenager in street and then attacked a man who challenged him about his behaviour, a court has heard.
Nathan Bantick made inappropriate comments to the young female before touching her groin area, and then punched and kicked a friend who told him not to behave that way.
Bantick has previously served a jail sentence for beating up two women working in a massage parlour because he was unhappy with the service he received, and then attacking a fellow customer who confronted him.
Sending the 33-year-old back to prison a judge at Swansea Crown Court said the public was “rightly concerned about hooligans and predators on our streets”.
Brian Simpson, prosecuting, told the court that on the evening of November 26 last year the defendant was in The Kingsway in Swansea city centre with his friend Kevin Owen when he was heard making inappropriate comments to a group of teenage girls before touching an 18-year-old female to the groin area and the thigh.
The court heard Mr Owen challenged Bantick’s behaviour and physically confronted him, the defendant responded by punching him to the ground and kicking him before walking off to the nearby hostel where he was living. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter
The prosecutor said around 15 minutes later Mr Owen, who also lived in the hostel, got home and started telling staff outside the building that Bantick was a “nonce” who had been “chatting up young girls”.
Bantick then emerged from the hostel and launched a second assault on his victim, again taking him to the floor before getting on top of him and repeatedly punching him in the face.
The court heard Mr Owen was subsequently taken to Morriston Hospital where medics found he had significant swelling and bruising to his face and to be missing two teeth.
Nathan Bantick, of Alexandra Road, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to sexual assault and to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has six previous convictions for 11 offences.
In April 2014 Bantick was jailed for 12 months for two counts of battery and one of ABH after going on a violent rampage in the Park Lane massage parlour in Swansea in the early hours of Christmas Day.
At that sentencing hearing prosecution barrister James Hartson said a Santa-hat wearing Bantick paid for a 30-minute massage but when told his time was up he became “very agitated” and started shouting that he hadn’t had his full half-an-hour and had been “mugged off”.
The defendant then began issuing threats unless he got his money back before punching the wall and punching two female members of staff in the head. He took out his military ID and said: “Who do you think the police are going to want to believe, you or me?”
The 2014 sentencing heard that when a fellow customer, Jeremy Rees, confronted Bantick telling him, “You can’t do that to women”, the defendant responded by launching a “sustained attack” on the man, repeatedly punching and kneeing his victim and kicking him to the head as he lay defenceless on the floor.
The defendant ended up being refunded £40 before leaving.
Bantick’s barrister on that occasion, Huw Davies, told the court that the defendant’s senior officer was in court and a custodial sentence would result in his client’s discharge from the Royal Marines.
Bantick was sentenced to 12 months in prison for the massage parlour incident.
The court heard the defendant’s last conviction was from July, 2024, for an offence of being drunk and disorderly.
Sarah John, for Bantick, said the defendant was “genuinely remorseful” for the sexual assault on the teenager and had described his own behaviour as “disgraceful”.
She said that as far as the assaults were concerned, the prosecution accepted the defendant had initially been “standing up for himself” but then went “over the top”.
The barrister said Bantick recognised his problem with alcohol and his need to remain abstinent, and said her client had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and was awaiting an assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Judge Geraint Walters told Bantick he hoped the defendant realised that what he did to the teenage female in The Kingsway was a “gross interference with her personal dignity”, and he said Bantick had then subjected Mr Owen to a “merciless and sustained attack”.
The judge said members of the public were “rightly concerned about hooligans and predators on our streets”.
With discounts for his guilty pleas Bantick was sentenced to 12 months in prison comprising four months for the sexual assault and eight months for each of the ABH counts, which will run concurrently with one another and consecutive to the sexual sentence.
The defendant will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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