An aspiring prison officer who hit Crystal Palace star Aaron Wan-Bissaka with a plastic beer bottle during a Premier League match has told a court it was a “drunken mistake” that he could not even remember.
Anthony Mahoney, 31, had drunk 12 pints of beer when he threw the bottle from the Selhurst Park away end during Palace’s September tie with Newcastle United.
It struck right-back Wan-Bissaka, 21, but he was not hurt.
Mahoney, a floor layer from North Shields, told Croydon magistrates’ court he is a rugby fan and went to the football match, his first, only because there was a spare ticket.
He pleaded guilty to throwing a missile onto a football playing area and was sentenced to a six-month conditional discharge with £105 in court costs and fees.
District judge Julie Cooper said his application to become a prison guard could be affected.
