Former Mr Gay Newcastle jailed for dislocating man’s ankle in unprovoked assault
Charlie Drummond, a former Mr Gay Newcastle and UK Big Brother contestant, has been found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm and sentenced to 21 months in prison.
On Friday, the jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard how 27-year-old Drummond had left the victim with a fractured leg and badly dislocated ankle after the unprovoked attack.
The assault took place in April on a night out in Newcastle when Drummond was out with his sister and others to celebrate her birthday. They had taken a taxi to Sleeperz Hotel in the early hours of the morning.
The victim, 32-year-old Jamie Ritchie, told the court how the incident happened when he was walking with two of his friends outside the hotel.
He said: “As we walked past Sleeperz I walked into a lamp-post. We all laughed and then we bumped into a group who thought we were laughing at them.
“There was a girl and two lads and all of a sudden one of them was going over the top and screaming. We tried to calm them down, saying we were not there for a fight.
“He was giving verbals and punched me with his left fist in the face. I didn’t know what was going on, I tried to stop him.
“Then we went to the ground and that was it. I was on the floor and not able to get up and I had an excruciating pain in my ankle. I was then punched more times, I was trying to stop him punching me.”
Mr Ritchie found that his ankle had been so badly dislocated after the attack that his foot was facing the wrong way. Witnesses said Drummond had his foot on top of Mr Ritchie’s as he pushed him to the ground.
The jury found Drummond guilty in a matter of only two hours, despite him denying carrying out the assault.
Shaun Routledge, defending, said: “He has been the victim of two very serious assaults himself in the past.
“He has worked for many years and used to work for Barclays Bank selling insurance and mortgages, but when he told them about this they thought it best he should leave.
“He is 27 today and is in a great deal of debt.”
Sentencing him, Judge James Goss QC said: “This was a sustained assault on a man who had done nothing to deserve it.
“As a result he suffered really serious harm and significant pain and required three operations under general anaesthetic to repair the damage and had his leg in plaster for 16 weeks.
“You have demonstrated no remorse whatsoever and you have sought to blame everyone but yourself for what took place.”
In 2007, Drummond himself was attacked in an unprovoked assault in Gateshead, where he was punched in the head and knocked to the ground.
His injuries were so severe, his family feared they could lose him. He was left with a fractured skull and a blood clot on the brain.
Drummond also appeared as a Big Brother contestant in 2009.
