Teenager spits blood in woman's face and hurls racial insult in Barnstaple pub clash
A TEENAGER who spat blood and hurled a racial insult at another on a night out in Barnstaple has been given a community order.
On Friday North Devon Magistrates' Court heard how Luke Derry Harris, 18, of 21 Oliver Road, Gorwell, assaulted Jordan McLeod in November last year.
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Tim Hook, for the defence, explained how the pair had attended school together and never really got along.
Karen Ball, for the prosecution, said the pair were both in a Barnstaple pub when Miss McLeod passed Harris on the stairs as she went for a cigarette.
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"He swore at her," she said. "Later she saw him having an argument with another woman and watched.
"When Harris asked her what she was looking at she said, 'I can look where I want'."
That is when Harris is alleged to have used a racial insult, although Mr Hook said his client had called Miss McLeod a "spoon", which he said means "a div".
Miss McLeod then threw a drink over Harris before leaving.
Later that evening she saw him in Barnstaple High Street, Mrs Ball said, and approached him to say she thought he was disgusting.
Harris, who it's alleged had been assaulted since Miss McLeod threw her drink over him, then spat in her face, leaving blood and phlegm dripping from her face.
Mr Hook said the situation had escalated because each party reacted to the other.
"She admits throwing a drink over my client," he said. "In any other situation that alone is a common assault.
"I'm not going to say this is six of one and half a dozen of the other, but both had involvement.
"It's an incident best left in the past."
Presiding magistrate Paul Cooper agreed, and handed Harris a six month supervision order and ordered him to pay a £60 victim surcharge.
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