Man bought cider for 15-year-old

Mar 28 2008 by Laurie Stocks-Moore, Chester Chronicle

A DRUNKEN man who bought cider for a 15-year-old boy and then grabbed a constable’s face has escaped with a conditional discharge.

Christopher Holder, 45, of Rutland Place, Newton, Chester, admitted buying two bottles of cider and handing them to the youth outside the Co-op on Kingsway.

Holder was also drunk and disorderly at the time and obstructed a police constable as he tried to arrest him.

At Chester Magistrates Court on Wednesday, prosecutor Jo Lazzari said: “At 7.30pm on February 1, a plain clothes special constable observed the defendant buying cider.

“He gave a bag with two bottles of cider to a 15-year-old.

“He was arrested and started to swear at the officer and continue swearing as he was warned about his behaviour.

“He took hold of the special constable’s face in the van.

“He said he could remember going to buy cider but couldn’t remember any of the events due to the level of intoxication.”

Peter Finney, defending, said: “You have someone who is drunk, is disorderly and is being obnoxious and unhelpful.

“Mr Holder has had difficulties with heroin and has committed offences to fund his habit.

“He’s managed to get that under control.

“He knows the young man involved and also knows his mother. He was passing alcohol on the understanding it was for the boy’s mother and not the boy.”

Holder was given a conditional discharge for two years and ordered to pay £43 costs.