Family feud ends in violence in Ramsgate after wake
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Jamie and Elaina O'Brien
have been jailed for a total of seven years
by Paul Hooper
Bitter rivalry between two families
spilled out onto the streets of Ramsgate - just hours after a
funeral.
It ended with FIVE revellers injured in an attack outside The
Jazz Room in July last year and one man accused of treating his
victims like "rag dolls".
One woman was hit with a shoe and another kicked unconscious
during the fracas, which began because of a family dispute.
And it ended with a brother and sister being given jail
sentences totaling seven years for the violent punch-up.
Donna East, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court there had
been a feud between the O'Briens and the Gowtons.
She said Ms Gowton's husband had become "involved" with the
mother of Elaina and Jamie O'Brien - and that had led to
name-calling in the street.
Brother and sister Elaina and Jamie - who both had previous
convictions and admitted being in breach of suspended sentences -
were both jailed after admitting the assaults.
Elaina, 22, of Arundel Road, Cliff's End, Ramsgate, pleaded
guilty to two assaults on Tracy Gowton and Anouska Vockings and was
jailed for two years.
Scaffolder Jamie, 26, of Market Street, Margate, admitted
charges of assaults by beating on Ms Vockings, Peter Allen, Karen
Oram and Tracey Silver. He was given a five-year extended sentence,
which includes a four-year jail term.
Judge Adele Williams told them: "You had both been to a funeral
and drinking all day. You were both drunk and a most unpleasant
incident then took place in the streets in Ramsgate."
The incident was captured on CCTV and played to the court, which
shown Elaina punching and kicking Ms Gowton.
The judge said the victim had "extremely unpleasant" injuries to
her face, neck, cheek, eyebrows, nose, ear, hands and arms, a black
eye and a chipped tooth.
The victim fell to the ground where she struck her head before
being kicked until she lost consciousness - and still has "ongoing"
problems with her injuries, including suffering panic attacks and
she is unable to hold her grandchild.
Elaina and her brother then turned on Ms Vockings - jointly
beating her as she lay on the ground in a sustained attack, the
court heard.
Four other people were then attacked during the bust-up that had
started because of bad feeling between the two families.
The prosecutor told how Tracy had been to The Jazz Room bar, in
Harbour Parade, Ramsgate, and a fight broke out.
"You had both been to a funeral and drinking all day. You were both drunk and a most unpleasant incident then took place in the streets in Ramsgate…” – Judge Adele Williams
Philip Rowley, defending father-of-one Jamie, said he had
attended a funeral in Margate before moving onto the wake. The
group then travelled to Ramsgate "where the drinking
continued".
He said: "The initial incident had involved Tracy Gowton and his
brother, Seamus, and then his sister. Through a thoroughly
misguided sense of sibling loyalty he became involved."
Defence barrister Oliver Kirk said hairdresser Elaina "feels
very strongly that it was her fault that this incident occurred and
it was her fault that her brother became involved.
"She had been to the funeral, had gone home to change and had
not gone out looking trouble... but trouble she found.
"She came across Ms Gowton and there was some name-calling about
her mother.
"But she accepts that she reacted entirely inappropriately to
what was only mild provocation - this happened because of her own
drunken behaviour."
Monday, February 13 2012
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