A thug who helped kick and punch two people in the head during a brawl at Pride has been spared jail.
Richard Shelley, also known as Nutty, was one of a group of up to 40 people who were involved in the fight at The Level in August 2019.
Hove Crown Court heard the 22-year-old was one of a group who savagely assaulted student Daniel Curry and his friend Greg Hughes, breaking both their noses and leaving them with concussion, bruising and anxiety.
Shelley, who was topless, was easily identified on CCTV of the brawl and described by the two victims as being one of the main aggressors.
A 17-year-old from Canterbury and Kirsty Kennard, 22, of Queensway, Brighton, have also been sentenced for their part in the fight, being given an 18-month youth rehabilitation order and a 24 month community order respectively. Both were ordered to also pay £300 compensation.
All three were charged with and admitted affray.
The fight first broke out in the afternoon, and police were called, gave words of advice, and then left.
Later in the evening, the teenager knocked Mr Curry, who shouted back at him, at which point the group set upon him for about five minutes, punching him in the head and face.
Mr Curry’s nose was broken, and his concussion so bad he was seeing stars for a month afterwards. He was so affected by the attack, he took three months off work and deferred the third year of his university course, incurring sizeable debts in the process.
Mr Hughes’s nose was also broken, his jaw was sprained and a bottle thrown by the mob broke on his head, leaving him needing stitches.
The court heard Shelley, from Bromley, has a string of previous convictions for supplying class A drugs, assault and aggravated vehicle taking.
However, his defence counsel, Donal Lawler, said a stretch in prison for the last offence had seen him take stock of his offending, and he was now putting his life together, with a partner and a baby due in December.
He said: “He was in a full destructive spiral, drinking alcohol and not engaging with probation.
“But he has significantly changed over the last year, after being in prison until July. He is showing all the positive signs one would hope to see.”
He added: “He remembers practically nothing of the incident itself and says he had been drinking a vast amount that day.”
Sentencing, Recorder Sarah Elliott said: “Two years ago, you were involved in in appalling incident at Brighton Pride which should be a happy, joyful day festival for everyone in this city.
“In fact for a number of individuals it was a day of misery and ongoing misery, caused by you and the people you were associating with.”
She gave him an 18 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered him to undertake 260 hours of unpaid work.
She also ordered him to pay £300 compensation to Mr Hughes, as court records seemed to show his co-defendants had been ordered to pay compensation to Mr Curry.
