Refund man committed 'very serious assault'

A homeless man was attacked after his prostitute girlfriend's client demanded a refund. The victim had been sitting on the ground outside the Shell petrol station in Leicester's

Narborough Road while his girlfriend was working nearby. According to the victim, he heard his girlfriend screaming from across the road and then saw Istvan Nemeth, 50, chasing after the

woman so he went to intervene. He told Leicestershire Police his girlfriend had told him Nemeth had tried to rape her and when he approached Nemeth he demanded his money back. Prosecutor

Sukhy Basi told Leicester Magistrates' Court on Thursday (October 10): "In the middle of Narborough Road the victim was attacked by the defendant. He was punched, kicked and

stamped on." The police had been called by a witness and officers arrived in time to arrest Nemeth at the scene. READ MORE: SECOND MAN JAILED AFTER BRAWL OUTSIDE PUB Injuries suffered

by the victim were shown to the magistrates. They also heard about a very different version of events from Nemeth, who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at the

hearing. In his version, Nemeth, of Beaconsfield Road, West End, Leicester, claimed he tried to offer the couple money to buy food and then, after the woman snatched the money and ran, he

had decided to beat up her boyfriend. Mr Basi said: "The defendant told police the female approached him and said, 'Do you want sex'. He said no several times and that he

would never pay for sex as he had a nice girlfriend. "He said he then walked away from the male and the female and they followed him. He believed they were homeless so he wanted to give

them money to buy food. "So he held out two £20 notes and the money was snatched by the female, who started to run off. The defendant has then chased the male - as he believed it was

not right to chase the female - and when he caught up with the male he said he hit him a couple of times." The police later showed Nemeth CCTV of the attack and he confirmed it was him

shown attacking the man in the middle of the road. Nemeth, who appeared at court with a Hungarian translator, had also admitting having drank six or seven bottles of Corona beer and half a

bottle of brandy ahead of the attack, which happened at about 10.45pm on Sunday, August 11. Rachel Gaffney, representing Nemeth, said: "The defendant is remorseful and fully accepts the

situation was handled incorrectly." She said her client had no previous convictions and worked shifts in a printing factory. She added that he was willing to do unpaid work as

punishment for the attack rather than serve an immediate prison sentence. Chair of the bench Dr Phillip Russell described it as a "very serious assault" and gave Nemeth a 24-week

sentence, suspended for 12 months. Nemeth was also ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work and pay £85 court costs and a £154 victim surcharge.