Party night ends in terror

A night of celebration for a 19-year-old rookie aircraft engineer ended in terror, a court heard.

The party, at Manchester’s Revolution Bar turned sour when bully Jason McAndrew repeatedly demaned that the unnamed young man - enjoying an end-of-season party organised by airport-based airline Jet2 - go for cigarettes, which he refused..

McAndrew then threw the teen from a terrace into the canal at Deansgate Locks.

Manchester and Salford magistrates heard how the victim struck his head on a wall before entering the icy canal water.

Prosecutor Lynn Rogers said the victim’s feet stuck in the mud and though he got free, he was disorientated because of the head injury. “He swallowed a lot of filthy water,” she said.

McAndrew (42), of Chadderton Hall Road, Chadderton, admitted common assault and damaging the youngster’s mobile phone, clothing and wallet. He was sentenced to 240 hours of unpaid work and to pay £700 compensation, £1,000 for the complainant’s “traumatic experience” and £210 in court costs.

Mrs Rogers said at one point McAndrew picked up the youngster and dangled him over the railings before putting him down again, insistng that he should go for cigarettes because he was an apprentice at the company. When he continued to refuse, McAndrew picked him up again and dropped him in the canal.

Mrs Rogers said the complainant was given a course of antibiotics to allay the potential for infection from the water.

John Wright, defending, said McAndrew admitted that his behaviour had been totally unacceptable. “It was a joke that went wrong” he said.