Jailed: 'Cruel and vicious' trio left man unconscious and needing metal plates in jaw after attack
Three “cruel and vicious” men who assaulted a man in his own home and left him unconscious and needing metal plates in his jaw have been jailed for more than 17 years in total.
Jamie Jackson’s attackers cornered him in his Market Drayton flat after wrongly accusing him of stealing a plastic egg containing £3,000 worth of cocaine from one of them.
That defendant even admitted during the trial that the cocaine turned up in his own flat after the attack.
Andrew Llewellyn, 49, Marcus Supersad, 26, and William Bratton 27, were all convicted of causing Mr Jackson grievous bodily harm with intent by a jury following a trial at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
Mr Jackson suffered a severely broken jaw and loss of feeling in his face, and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of the “harrowing” attack.
The case:
The attackers went to his flat on April 7 last year, driven by Bratton, and beat him unconscious using a rock taken from outside to inflict some of the injuries.
Llewellyn and Supersad set upon him in the mistaken belief that he had taken a plastic egg containing cocaine from Llewellyn’s flat.
Giving evidence during the trial Llewellyn conceded that the drugs were later found in a cupboard in his own flat.
All three men were found guilty last Friday, and on Wednesday Judge Anthony Lowe handed down their punishments.
He accepted that Bratton played a “subordinate” role in the offence.
He said: “The location of the offence, given that it was in Mr Jackson’s home, is obviously a factor.
“Mr Jackson has, not surprisingly, chosen to move.”
He sentenced Supersad and Llewellyn to six and a half years in jail each for causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and Bratton to four and a half years.
For an unrelated offence of assaulting a police officer in connection with other matters, he gave Llewellyn an additional two-month sentence to run consecutively.
All three were also given restraining orders, meaning they cannot contact Mr Jackson directly or indirectly for the next 10 years.
The defendants’ legal representatives addressed the judge before the sentences were handed down.
Paul Smith, representing Supersad, said to the judge that he has two “very young” children.
Kevin Jones, for Llewellyn, pointed out that the attack lasted only seconds and argued that the use of the rock was not pre-meditated.
For Bratton, Brendan Reedy said that his client did not enter the flat and only acted as the driver.
In a victim impact statement summarised in court, Mr Jackson said that he has been prescribed various medications to help him sleep, and suffers pain when he laughs and yawns.
In a statement to the Shropshire Star after the sentencing, he said: “I hope these lengthy sentences imposed by His Honour Judge Lowe, to whom I am so grateful, act as a warning and deterrent to others.
“While it is a great relief that these dangerous and violent men have been taken off the streets, no sentence can undo the injuries inflicted upon me.
“My sole wish now is that the justice system is successful in its attempts to rehabilitate these unpredictable brutes during the course of their imprisonment over next few years.
“If it does not succeed, we all remain at risk.
“This has been a harrowing ordeal and one that epitomises the expression: ‘being in the wrong place at the wrong time’.”
Mr Jackson added: “Not only was I publicly and falsely accused of being a cocaine addict, but I was falsely accused by these criminals of stealing £3,000 worth of cocaine, for which I received significant injuries.
“I have been left with a permanent facial scar, loss of feeling in part of my face and lip, a jaw that is held together with numerous metal plates, and post-traumatic stress disorder which is continually exacerbated by my now ever-present and intense feelings of hyper-vigilance.
“I am left unable to trust people’s actions and motivations.
“These violent and dangerous men, knowing that they were guilty of a cruel and vicious attack, forced me to give evidence at trial not once, but twice.
“They must not be allowed to walk among normal-thinking citizens until they have been rehabilitated.
“Nobody should be made to suffer like I have.”
