Vicious thug on the run

This is the face of a vicious thug who attacked his mate with a bar stool in a Stafford pub and left him with gaping head wounds.

Giles Harvey was on the run when a judge at Stafford Crown Court earlier this week jailed him indefinitely for the “vicious and remorseless” attack.

The picture was issued today by Stafford Police after launching a manhunt to catch the man described in court as “extremely violent.”

Harvey was earlier found guilty in his absence of wounding Lyndon Pedley with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm and Mr Recorder Jonathan Edwards gave him until last Thursday to hand himself in and be sentenced in person.

But Harvey, aged 35, of Brunswick Terrace, who had denied the allegation, remained on the run.

The recorder passed an indefinite jail sentence directing that Harvey should serve at least 42 months. He will not be released until the parole board consider it safe and even then Harvey will be on licence for the rest of his life.

“He has shown himself to be an extremely violent man,” said the judge after hearing of Harvey’s list of previous convictions.

They included threatening customers in a pub with a broken glass, attacking someone in the street, slashing a man with a craft knife, a knife attack on another man and hitting a further victim with a paving slab.

The trial was told that Harvey turned on Mr Pedley in the Four Crosses pub in Marston Road and hit him repeatedly over the head with a heavy bar stool.

He was left with gaping wounds, one of which needed 16 stitches.

The court heard that Harvey disappeared the night before his trial was due to start and it went ahead without him.

The attack on Mr Pedley happened on December 8 of last year.

Police have warned members of the public not to approach Harvey and urged anyone who thinks they may have seen him to contact Stafford CID via 08453 30 20 10.