A MAN stabbed at two men’s necks with a broken bottle and smashed several city centre windows in lengthy early morning violence, York Magistrates Court heard.

Alexander James Webster, 21, grabbed the beer bottle and deliberately smashed it on the ground before attacking the two victims in separate lunges outside The Drawing Board bar in New Street, between Coney Street and Davygate, said Kim Coley, prosecuting.

He also kicked in windows in the bar and premises in Coney Street, Church Street and Blake Street.

District judge Adrian Lower sent him to York Crown Court for sentence, where judges have greater powers than his maximum of six months in prison.

“This was a sustained and persistent offence of disorder,” he said. “I would imagine you were heavily in drink or had taken some cocaine or both, which only makes matters worse. You chose to put yourself in that state.”

Webster, of Langdale Avenue in Burnholme, York, pleaded guilty to affray, theft of a beer bottle, two assaults, possession of cocaine and four charges of criminal damage to windows, all committed around 5am on December 10.

He was released on bail on condition he observe a nightly curfew between 7pm and 6am until he appears before York Crown Court for sentence on February 25.

Kristian Cavanagh, defending him, reserved his mitigation until the crown court hearing.

Mr Lower, sitting in Leeds, heard how one of the men was having a cigarette with a woman friend in New Street near The Drawing Board at 5am on December 10, having finished his shift at another premises earlier in the night.

Ms Coley said Webster was shouting at the bottom of the street. He came up to the couple, snatched the beer bottle out of the woman’s hand, broke it and lunged at the smoker's neck “with a clear intent to stab him” with it.

The victim managed to grab his arm and push it away, while the second victim came out of The Drawing Board and helped him. But Webster then lunged at him in an attempt to stab him.

Webster kicked in the windows of The Drawing Board, as he had already kicked in the windows of Blake & Butler hair salon in Blake Street, EE phone shop in Coney Street and a window in Church Street. He made off, but police caught him after a short chase and found a small packet of cocaine in his pocket, said Ms Coley.