Leave to appeal for jailed Chinn
Michael Chinn
A multi-millionaire businessman serving jail time for a reckless nightclub glass throwing attack has won the first round of an Appeal Court bid to overturn his conviction.
Michael Chinn, 37, was last month convicted of wounding Meghan Davies as he threw a beer glass across a crowded room at “Loaded” nightclub in Spalding.
Chinn, whose companies have an annual turnover of £30m and who was once a majority share holder and director of King’s Lynn Football Club, was handed a 15-month jail term.
However, Chinn, of Old Fendike Road, Weston Hills, now claims his trial was unfair and on Tuesday won permission to take his complaints to a full hearing at London’s Appeal Court.
Chinn’s barrister, Anthony Montgomery, argued the trial jury should have been discharged after one witness made a prejudicial statement when giving evidence.
The witness had not been flagged up as “hostile” to Chinn’s defence and what she told the jury was “inadmissable”, the barrister added.
And Mr Justice Kenneth Parker told him: “There are matters to be explained here. I do think there is sufficient to be investigated, so I am minded to grant permission to appeal”.
The judge ordered an urgent hearing of Chinn’s conviction appeal, at which Crown lawyers will also put forward arguments, and directed that a full transcript of the crucial witness’ evidence be obtained for perusal by the three-judge court.
Chinn, a self-made man, was refused bail pending the appeal hearing.
Sentencing Chinn at Lincoln Crown Court last month, Judge Sean Morris, told him: “You threw a glass across a crowded room. You could easily have blinded somebody.”
Mr Montgomery said at the time: “This was foolhardy in the extreme but it wasn’t anything that was persisted with. It was one act of folly. He does bitterly regret this incident.”
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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