Armed thug gets five years jail for ‘vicious’ attack on unwanted visitor
A thug who launched a ‘vicious’ attack on an unwanted visitor to his seventh-floor home has been jailed for five years.
Philip Connors chased Mark Douglas and battered him with a weapon after Mr Douglas followed his girlfriend to the door of their flat, a jury heard.
Mr Douglas, who was said to have been drinking and taking drugs, was repeatedly hit in the face before falling down a flight of stairs at the building in Bath Street, Caldmore, Walsall, on February 8, explained Mr Bernard Linnemann, prosecuting.
The defendant followed the victim down the steps to continue the beating, most of which was captured by CCTV, it was said.
The prosecutor maintained: “It was a sustained attack that started at the top of the stairs and continued after the injured party fell down the stairs.
"He was wounded but mercifully was not gravely injured.”
Mr Douglas later claimed he went to the block to get drugs, the trial was told.
He followed Connors’s girlfriend into the lift, got out at the same floor and tailed her to the door of her flat.
There was a short conversation between him and either the woman or the defendant before he left and began walking down the stairs.
Seconds later Connors was seen leaving the flat armed with a weapon, the jury heard.
The weapon looked like a metal bar but was never recovered, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
After the beating, Mr Douglas, who suffered facial injuries and a fractured finger, looked ‘completely disorientated,’ concluded Mr Linnemann.
The victim was spotted outside the building by a taxi driver and the emergency services were alerted.
Mr Mohammed Bashir, defending, said: “It is accepted by the complainant that he was only in the flats to buy drugs and thought his friends were on either the first or second floor. He cannot explain why he was on the seventh floor.
“The defendant is not an aggressive person by nature. He could have reacted better to somebody appearing for no apparent reason but over reacted to the situation. He has had mental health issues.”
Connors denied wounding with intent but was found guilty by a jury.
He was jailed by Recorder Stephen Thomas who said: “There is no evidence that the injured party did anything improper or wrong to either the defendant or his girlfriend.
"It is possible that you concluded something had happened or the man posed some kind of risk.
"Your mental problems may have led you to misinterpret what had gone on.”
