A VIOLENT teenage thug who continued to offend despite being on a suspended sentence for a sickening assault has been given another last chance by a judge, who took pity on the yob's weeping mother.
Matthew Chadwick was spared immediate jail 18 months ago after he admitted carrying out a brutal unprovoked attack in the street.
Since then the 19-year-old mechanic has committed a series of other offences, including assaults.
Despite the law saying the jail sentence must be activated unless the court finds it unjust, he has continually retained his liberty.
Now Judge Robert Pawson, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, has told him he will get no more chances - as he imposed another suspended sentence.
He said he was making the order after seeing Chadwick's mum sobbing in the public gallery as she feared her boy was going to jail.
Chadwick was sentenced to 20 months suspended for two years in October 2016, after admitting the brutal attack in Westbury town centre which left local vet Christopher Hoew unconscious in the Market Place.
But he was back before the judge after for assaulting a man in the Westbury Conservative Club in September 2017, and had also left the scene of a late night smash a month later.
It was revealed he had been convicted on two other occasions during the suspended sentence.
In March last year he was convicted of criminal damage using threatening words and behaviour.
In January this year, in Bristol, he was again spared jail for two counts of battery, being told instead to obey a night time curfew, which he had repeatedly breached.
Charles Thomas, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the latest assault took place after a man had been rude to the defendant's former girlfriend.
Chadwick put him to the ground and then rained blows on his face when he was out cold in the Saturday night attack, he said.
In the early hours of a Sunday morning in late October he said the defendant's car was found smashed into a road sign and rubbish bin on Langford Road, Trowbridge.
Although there were suspicions about why he may not have reported it immediately he later said he had not been drinking and had planned to tell the council about it.
Chadwick, of Bridge Court, Westbury, admitted failing to report an accident and assault.
Mike Pulsford, defending, said his client had a job as a mechanic at Protyres and was trying to make a go of things.
Passing sentence the judge said “Mr Chadwick, have a look at your parents. You should be ashamed of yourself.
"Your mother is weeping in a public building because she anticipates, rightly, that you are on the verge of going to prison for two years.
"For her sake and for her sake alone I tell you I am not going to send you to prison today.
"Most people would be forgiven for thinking I have taken leave of my senses, because you have shown scant regard for any of the orders made by this court over the last two years.
“I hope I am not making a mistake."
He imposed a three-month jail term suspended for a year with a three-month curfew starting when the current one ends, banned Chadwick from the road for three weeks and ordered he pay £450 costs.
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