34-year-old was ‘being protective’ of sister when he punched man in town centre

A 34-year-old repeat offender who cut off his alcohol monitoring tag was witnessed punching and kicking a man to the floor.Jack Greenacre, of Lynn Road in West Newton, appeared at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty to the assault.He also admitted breaching a community order after he cut off his alcohol ankle tag on December 3 last year.

Prosecutor Jessica Neequaye told the court that the assault took place on January 23, when CCTV in Lynn town centre captured Greenacre with a group of people following the victim.They got to Railway Road where Greenacre approached the victim, who tried to get away from him.Greenacre caught up and started to repeatedly punch him until he fell to the floor. Greenacre then began kicking him, before walking off in the direction of the train station. Greenacre had 50 previous convictions to his name. He was also in court in December last year for punching a man at Lynn’s bus station.In mitigation, Ruth Johnson told magistrates that he had been annoyed at the victim due to him allegedly selling drugs to Greenacre’s sister. “They just happened to come across each other. It is right to say there had previously been difficulties between them,” Ms Johnson said.“He acted on impulse. The red mist descended on him, and he was incredibly apologetic. He knows it was not the right thing to do.”Ms Johnson described Greenacre’s kick to the victim as “feeble” and said he has been “changing his behaviour”. “He felt incredibly strongly about the victim. He was being protective but went about it in a misguided way,” the solicitor added.Probation officer Lewis Spicer confirmed that aside from cutting the alcohol tag off, Greenacre has been “responding well” to the community order imposed on him for a separate offence last year.Magistrates allowed that order to continue, and fined Greenacre £25 for the breach.He was ordered to pay £50 in compensation to the victim and court costs of £30.