'Hunter' locked up for attempting to kill teenager in Dudley

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that Deacon Hemmingway, then 17, stabbed the victim of the same age more than three times with a zombie knife after luring him to Malthouse Drive, Eve Hill, at about 9pm on January 30 on the pretext of a date.

He met up with the victim after befriending him on the gay dating app Grindr and claiming to be aged 15, the court heard.

Hemmingway, now 18 and from Wolverhampton Street, Dudley, pleaded guilty to attempted murder at a previous hearing after initially denying the offence.

Sentencing him on Friday, Judge Michael Chambers KC said it was clear that the victim was homosexual and that he wanted to 'out' him. He told Hemmingway that that in his judgement he posed a risk to the public.

The court heard the victim had to be given life-saving surgery and a blood transfusion following the attack during which he suffered a collapsed lung and cuts to other internal organs after being struck in the chest and abdomen.

Judge Chambers said he was sentencing on the basis of the prosecution's case that Hemmingway "planned to trap and kill" someone who he believed was a paedophile. He said the case did not relate to sexual orientation.

He told Hemmingway: "This was a determined, premeditated attack on a young victim. It was also a planned attack with a degree of sophistication. He was in any view extremely fortunate to survive and you are fortunate not to be facing a murder sentence.

"The offence took place on January 30. The evidence shows that on January 27 you were searching Google using terms such as 'alibi' and 'what is needed to arrest someone for murder?'.

"Between January 21 and 30 your phone was used to log in to Grinder. From the messages found you were clearly targeting men who were homosexuals, purporting to be a young teen aged 15, intending to trap a potential paedophile. Checks of your Facebook account found you were part of the vigilante group Paedophile Hunters."

The court was shown security camera footage of the attack in the quiet residential street.

Howard Searle, prosecuting, told the court the victim could recall little of the incident which was witnessed by two 14-year-olds who tried to intervene, but ran to a nearby house to get help when they saw that Hemmingway was armed with a 10-inch serrated blade.

Jas Mann, defending barrister, said Hemmingway had autism and a difficult childhood and that his parents had split when he was young. He asked for the sentence to be kept as short as possible.

In his impact statement, the victim described how he had been left with mobility issues, was anxious and fearful of travelling about in the dark by the attack and that he was receiving counselling.

Hemmingway was given an extended youth sentence totalling of 17 years. He must serve two-thirds before being considered for parole.

Reporting restrictions were lifted.