TEENS LOCKED UP AFTER SIX-HOUR ORDEAL FOR VULNERABLE MAN IN HUDDERSFIELD
The 30-year-old victim, who suffered brain damage after being hit with a brick when he was only 18, had his glasses broken, was struck with a tree branch and even had a bin-liner put over his head during an ordeal said to have lasted about six hours.Bradford Crown Court heard how Ross Thorpe and Mark Chambers had been drinking at a bedsit in Trinity Street together with their victim and two women, but later that night, the two teenagers, then aged 18, began picking on the complainant.
Mr Topham said the man, who had problems with his speech and eyesight, became frightened and during a walk to a nearby petrol station, Thorpe picked up a tree branch and began hitting him with it.
"Both men were abusing him and calling him names," said Mr Topham.
Later that night, the complainant ran out of the flat heading towards the railway station, but Thorpe tripped him up and punched him before he was forced to go back to the property.
Once back in the bedsit, Thorpe took the man’s glasses and broke them before putting a bin-liner over his head.
The court heard that Chambers intervened telling Thorpe to take the bin-liner off him.
But Chambers then told the complainant they were going back to the petrol station and he was going to rob him.
The two defendants then went with the complainant to an ATM where he was told to enter his PIN before Chambers checked the balance and withdrew £50 in cash.
The incident was reported to the police and both Chambers and Thorpe were arrested within days of the robbery last October.
Thorpe, now 19, eventually admitted charges of robbery and assault and 18-year-old Chambers pleaded guilty to the robbery allegation.
Judge John Potter sentenced them both to 20 months in a young offenders’ institution with Thorpe being given a concurrent five-month sentence for the assault.
The judge said the case was aggravated by the use of a weapon, albeit a branch, and there was a background of humiliation and degradation over a significant period of time.
