A Northallerton man who terrified supermarket staff and customers and struck a security guard with a glass alcohol bottle, causing a gaping wound, has been jailed for more than three years.
Gary Smithies, 34, from Northallerton, was pacing up and down the alcohol aisle at Morrison’s in York, brandishing a bottle of wine in one hand and a bottle of spirits in the other, causing consternation among staff and customers, York Crown Court heard.
A security guard asked him if he was okay, but Smithies continued to pace up and down in front of staff and customers, mumbling to himself and at one point stopping to drink from a two-litre bottle of cider, said prosecutor Alex Menary.
The store manager went to help his colleague and asked Smithies to leave, but Smithies replied: “I’ll smash your f******* face in with this bottle.”
Smithies then started “swinging and waving” the bottle around and brought it down on the security guard’s head, causing a “large cut” or wound. The bottle in his other hand smashed on the floor.
He then started grappling on the floor with the store manager and another named man who were joined by a customer in restraining Smithies.
As he was escorted out of the supermarket, Smithies told them: “You think this is over? I’m going to come back later.”
And he was true to his word – returning shortly afterwards with a large rock which he used to smash the store’s front window, causing £275 of damage.
Police searched the area for Smithies who was spotted by an officer in the street. When the constable stopped his car to speak to him, Smithies ran up to the police vehicle and opened the driver’s door.
Smithies shouted at the officer with his “fists and teeth clenched”, said Mr Menary.
He was arrested and hauled into custody where he initially gave a false name. He was charged with wounding with intent, affray and criminal damage.
Smithies, of no fixed address, admitted the offences, which occurred at about 4.30pm on December 12 last year. He appeared for sentence today after being remanded in custody.
In a statement read out in court, the named security guard who was struck with the bottle said the wound had resulted in facial swelling which had affected his eyesight.
He said he had been affected not just physically but also emotionally. He described Smithies’ behaviour as “outrageous”.
Prosecuting barrister Mr Menary said the mayhem inside the store in Front Street, Acomb, had been witnessed by customers “throughout” the incident.
Smithies had 18 previous convictions for 36 offences including wounding, battery and damaging property.
In 2019, he was jailed for over three years for a shop robbery at the Co-op store in Paragon Street, York, where he threatened to stab staff with a bottle if they didn’t hand him money.
In July last year he was given an eight-week jail sentence for battery and criminal damage. He was released on prison licence four days before he wounded the security guard at Morrison’s.
His solicitor advocate Graham Parkin said Smithies had a very poor upbringing and had recently been diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder.
He said he had been released from his last jail sentence with “no address, no support (and) nowhere to stay”, but he had since been receiving treatment while in custody.
Judge Sean Morris told Smithies that his deranged behaviour in the supermarket “must have been quite terrifying for members of the public”.
He described Smithies’ criminal record as “shocking” and his prospects as “dismal”.
Smithies was handed a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence, of which he will serve half behind bars before being released on prison licence.
On passing sentence, the judge told him he would “need to lay off the drugs and…the drink because with your problems, that way lies just a lifetime of returning to prison”.
Mr Morris also made a 10-year exclusion order banning Smithies from entering any Morrison’s premises.
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