A shoplifter who used a joint of meat to assault a store manager will discover his fate later this week.
However, Desmond Stephens got more than he bargained for when his victim retaliated with ‘punches’ before throwing him out of the building.
Forty-five-year-old Stephens pleaded guilty to stealing meat worth £40 from a shop in Long Sutton and a charge of assault by beating when he appeared in court on Wednesday.
“The defendant attended the Spar store where the manager was watching the CCTV cameras,” prosecutor Kerry Close told Boston magistrates.
“He noticed Mr Stephens put a piece of meat inside his jacket.”
When the store manager arrived at the meat aisle to ask Stephens to pay for the concealed meat the altercation began.
“Mr Stephens becomes aggressive and throws the joint at him (the store manager) and it bounces off his head,” Mrs Close continued.
“Mr Stephens then headbutts the store manager. He says he feels immediate pain but there was no injury from the headbutt.
“The store manager threw punches back at Mr Stephens before he was ejected from the store.”
The incidents occurred on January 29 of this year but Stephens, of Grounds Avenue, March, Cambridgeshire, wasn’t arrested until April 2 when facial recognition was used to identify him.
In police interview the defendant argued he was planning to pay for the meat.
Mrs Close told the court Stephens was currently under a suspended sentence imposed for four shop thefts in November last year.
Stephens will be sentenced at Peterborough Magistrates Court on Friday (April 19).
