A man who punched and kicked a woman at a baby shower before pulling a knife on her father has been handed a suspended prison sentence after a judge was told the attack was out of character.
Harvey Rouen, 22, from Saltash, Plymouth, attended the event with his girlfriend at a pub in Bodmin last August. What began as play-fighting with one of the women quickly soured. He began shouting, then punching and kicking a woman repeatedly. After that, he followed two women who had fled to another bar in the town. Footage shown in court captured him kicking one woman in the stomach and repeatedly punching another at the entrance as he tried to force his way inside.
“Harvey Rouen, 22, avoided immediate jail after turning a baby shower violent, assaulting women and threatening a father with a knife.”
When the woman's father arrived to collect her and attempted to calm the situation, Rouen pulled a knife from his pocket and threatened him with it, the court heard.
At Truro Crown Court on Friday, Rouen pleaded guilty to affray and possession of a knife in a public place. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.
Recorder Charles Murray told him: "The baby shower was ruined by you... It must have been a terrifying thing for the people to go through. There were other people in the street too. You were very angry on that occasion which you shouldn't have been. There were plenty of opportunities for you to remove yourself from the scene. But you didn't and it escalated."
A victim impact statement read to the court said the woman attacked was left shaken and terrified that Rouen would stab her father, adding she had been left feeling "on edge" all the time.
Harriet Summerhayes, defending, said Rouen had no prior convictions and fully accepted "the unpleasant nature of his offending and how terrifying it would have been for people that day". She described the incident as entirely out of character. She told the court he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) but holds down a job, has stable accommodation and hopes to set up his own landscaping business. "Prison would unsettle his life. He would lose his job, his accommodation. He wishes he could go back in time and change what happened," she said.
Recorder Murray acknowledged the mitigating factors but emphasised the terror caused to the victims and bystanders.