Groups fought running battles through ther streets
The incident began outside The White Swan pub in Ashbourne(Image: Google Maps)
Bottles were thrown and people attacked during a mass brawl in a Derbyshire town centre.
CCTV played at Nottingham Crown Court showed the two warring groups exchanging blows as they ran through the streets, some armed with glass missiles.
In the footage, one man is seen to carry a bar stool taken from a pub while another is struck to the head with a bottle, leaving him bleeding from the wound.
That victim ended up with a fractured skull as a result of the assault, while at least one more was hospitalised.
And in a separate wounding incident, one of those involved – Blu Wright – poured boiling water from a kettle over a drug user before demanding £10,000 from him.
Sentencing four defendants, Judge Philip Head said: “You, Wright and Bailey, were holding bottles of beer as a weapon and that’s when the mayhem broke out.
“Others were trying to calm things down, encouraging your group to leave and you did but another group walked to try and cut you off and there was more fighting.
“You, Wright, hit a man to the head with a bottle and he suffered a fractured skull but that was not the end of the affray because there was then an incident where you, Wright, punched a man from behind and were kicking out at his head.”
Dawn Pritchard, prosecuting, said the events concerned what she called “a brawl” between at least two groups which began outside the White Swan pub in Ashbourne Market Place at around 11.30pm on April 8, 2022.
She said: “Groups had been in the pub drinking and playing pool
“Bottles were thrown and there was more than one altercation in the town.
“During the course of this (the first victim) was assaulted when he was hit to the head by a bottle.
“Another victim was hit to the back of the head and then punched to the face outside Benny’s takeaway before one of the groups fled from the scene.
“Both sides are throwing things, it is hard to see what they are, then there’s a road cone.
“Other people come in and try to calm it down.”
Miss Pritchard said in a later, unlinked, and totally separate incident, in Eastwood, on June 3, 2025, Wright poured the contents of a kettle of boiling water over a drug user demanding he transfer £10,000 to him before he and a co-defendant called Tegan Hawley began to attack the man.
She said: ”He would often transfer money into her accounts for drugs and on the day in question they had been taking drugs for around 10 hours.
“The defendant, Blu Wright, came to the address and others were also present.
“He saw on the complainant’s banking app that he had a lot of money in his account and so got a kettle filled with boiling water and poured some of the contents over him.
“He then started to punch him, along with Miss Hawley, and demanded he transfer £10,000 to him.
“At one stage a wooden stick was used and both defendants punched the complainant with Hawley telling him to transfer the money.”
Wright, 30, of Comet Drive, Eastwood, admitted charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm and affray.
He pleaded guilty to an unrelated theft of a bike, shop thefts and common assault for later incidents in Eastwood and Nottingham and has 21 previous offences on his record.
Will Bennett, defending, said: “He had a chaotic childhood and the word chaotic is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that statement.”
He was jailed for eight years and nine months.
Ashley Dunne, a 28-year-old county council refuse loader and father-of-three, of Lynholmes Road, Matlock, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray and has 25 offences.
Ellesse Taylor, mitigating, said: “Consuming alcohol was a driving force behind his offending and he knows this is behaviour which is unacceptable.”
He was handed a 22-month jail term, suspended for two years and handed a prohibition not to enter any licenced premises for two years.
Jason Bailey, 35, of no fixed address, admitted assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and affray and has 22 offences including robbery and drugs.
David Watts, his barrister, said: “He is settled in prison and wishes to remain there.
“If he were to be released today he would be street homeless and he knows where that leads him.”
He was sent to prison for two years.
Tegan Hawley, 37, of Cromford Road, Langley Mill, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in relation to the Eastwood incident and has six previous offences.
Dominic Shelley, her barrister, said: “Quite simply, she’s been stuck in a trough of alcohol and drugs pretty much all her adult life.
“She played, in that assault, a much lesser role.”
She was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
