A CONFIRMED alcoholic had the sobering experience of watching a court at work when he breached an anti-social behaviour order for the seventh time.

Noel James Corr had pleaded guilty to breaching the ASBO and was sentenced by York magistrates to sit at the back of the court until it rose some hours later.

At one point, Corr tried to escape the unusual punishment by leaving the courtroom without permission. Magistrates promptly ordered the usher to fetch him back and he was returned to his seat at the back of court. Magistrates then proceeded with the case they were hearing.

Corr’s prolonged stay at York Magistrates Court began when he stopped for a drink of super strength-lager in the churchyard of St George’s RC Church.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said that action led to him being arrested because the churchyard was inside the city walls.

Last May, York magistrates barred him from having an open beer can in public and drinking in public in the city centre under an ASBO.

It was the seventh time he had breached the order.

On one occasion, he was jailed because he was caught drinking on the steps of York Magistrates Court - which is also inside the city walls.

His solicitor, Nick Darwin, said Corr, 54, of the Arc Light Centre, Union Terrace, was an alcoholic and had been most of his life. “Alcohol is entrenched here,” he said.

Sober, Corr was an “engaging, pleasant” person, but when he’d had something to drink, he could be a nuisance.

That was the reason magistrates had banned him from drinking in public in the city centre.

The churchyard was two minutes’ walk from the city walls and had he waited for his drink, he would have been all right.