A TEENAGED thug has been jailed for attacking a bus passenger with a broken vodka bottle in front of shocked onlookers on a busy double decker.

Aaron Deacon had a grudge against the victim and jumped up from his seat at the back of the bus in Barnstaple when he saw him getting on.

CCTV showed him advancing down the centre aisle and smashing the bottle over his head before picking up the injured man’s bag and fleeing into the night.

Deacon was already on bail for a using a knuckleduster to smash the plastic barrier protecting the tills at a Coop store during a violent shoplifting expedition during which he pelted a staff member with cider cans.

He is only 19 but has a record of violence going back to when he was 16 and was supposed to be working with social workers and probation under a Youth Rehabilitation Order at the time he committed these offences.

Deacon, aged 19, now of Tiverton Road, Cullompton, admitted theft, threatening behaviour, possessing an offensive weapon and criminal damage at the Coop and wounding, theft and criminal damage on the bus.

He was jailed in a young offenders institution for a year and four months by Judge James Patrick at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: “These are serious offences. You walked the length of the bus and attacked a man with a bottle, causing wounds to his head.”

Mr Paul Grumbar, prosecuting, said Deacon went into the Coop in Barnstaple on June 12, 2023, tried to walk out with a pack of cider, and put a knuckleduster on his hand when challenged by a member of staff.

He flailed at the shop assistant, who retreated behind the plastic screen at the tills, which Deacon hit so violently with the knuckleduster that it bent.

He pelted the staff with cans as he left. He was arrested nearby and claimed to be too drunk to remember what he had done.

He attacked a former friend with whom he had fallen on a bus and left him with gashes in his head.

He caused £2,700 to the bus doors as he fled, picking up the victim’s bag and phone which had fallen onto the pavement during the attack.

Mr Michael Brown, defending, said Deacon accepted he had behaved like a thug and a yob but has made changes to his life and moved to Cullompton with a new partner and is about to start a job.

He had a very difficult childhood in and out of care but has been assessed as a good prospect for rehabilitation by the probation service, who recommend an alcohol abstinence tag and rehabilitation activities.