THREE men have been jailed over a brawl outside a Croydon town centre nightspot where DJ Tim Westwood was playing at a bank holiday event.
Jetro Lopes, 20, Alex Domingo, 23, and Alfie Gillam, 23, were each handed ten-month sentences at Croydon Crown Court on Tuesday, September 9, after pleading guilty to affray outside the Easter Sunday night at the 12-20 club in Crown Hill.
They only faced charges of affray as the Crown Prosecution Service dropped more serious charges of violent disorder in July. The club ended up losing its licence as a result of the April 20 disorder.
Despite this week's convictions, a person who stabbed someone in the club's cloakroom at the same event has yet to be identified.
The disturbance occurred just before midnight after a series of scuffles inside the club while former Radio One DJ Tim Westwood was playing.
Several groups of youths spilled out into the street, which is when the CCTV cameras captured the fighting.
On CCTV shown to Judge Stephen Waller at Croydon Crown Court before today's sentencing, it appeared Domingo, of Smock Walk, Selhurst, was the first to throw a punch and he landed two blows in the scuffle.
Gillam, of Houlder Crescent, Waddon, then attempted to throw a punch at someone he claimed had slept with his girlfriend but, in the words of prosecutor Hamish Reid: "He made a complete pig's mess of it and ended up on his back on the floor."
As the group referred to as 'the victims' in the brawl made their way down Surrey Street, Lopes, of Lancing Road, Thornton Heath, then emerged carrying a weapon which Mr Reid said police had thought to be a knife but which Lopes maintained was a rod.
He swung the 'rod' out while pushing the opposing group back but did not make any contact. He then ran off back up Crown Hill as police moved in to break up the scuffle but was arrested later that evening.
After CCTV was examined and their faces were circulated, Domingo was arrested on May 6 and Gillam on May 9.
In interview, Domingo denied the man in the CCTV was him, saying "he's not as pretty as me". Gillam and Lopes both said they had been intoxicated.
All three had previous convictions; Lopes had been jailed for violent disorder in 2012 for his part in the 2011 Croydon riots, Domingo had received a five-and-a-half year jail sentence for robbery in 2009, and Gillam has had ten previous court appearances since 2005 including convictions for actual bodily harm, battery and wounding.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Waller said: "Everybody who takes part in these incidents has a joint responsibility. It is all too common in our town centres at weekends. Many people are put off going into town centres because they are frightened of this sort of violent disorder."
