A teenager jumped and stamped on a defenceless man's head while leaving his wife lying on the floor in pain in an unprovoked attack, a court heard.
Jamie Knowles went into Preston city centre with a gang of 'thugs' before leading out the violent attack. The now-18-year-old knocked the victim onto the floor where he then landed multiple kicks.
His worried and horrified wife ran over to the scene, leading to her also being thrown onto the floor. Knowles was 17 when the incident took place and was therefore sentenced as a youth - leading to reduced custody time, despite multiple previous convictions such as robbery, affray, and possession of a knife, Lancs Live reports.
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Preston Crown Court was told how Knowles was among a group of people running through the city centre on March 18 while banging on doors and kicking cars. At around 8.40pm, Jason and Leanne Whitehead were walking along Fishergate Hill after seeing some relatives.
The couple were on their way to see friends and had a bottle of wine on them they had intended to provide as a gift. However, as Knowles interacted with the couple by knocking Jason's hat off, the victim only asked 'what are you doing?' while waving the wine about to shake them off.
Recorder Flack told Knowles: “Had you left it at that, you would no doubt not be in court today.” The same bottle of wine was taken and thrown at Jason, quickly followed by Knowles' full body weight.
CCTV footage from a nearby shop showed how Knowles knocked over Mr Whitehead and repeatedly kicked him. He proceeded to snatch the bottle of wine and threw it at Jason before jumping and stamping on him.
Fortunately, Mr Whitehead managed to avoid receiving a serious head injury - although his elbow was significantly damaged. He was rushed to Royal Preston Hospital where he underwent an operation for a fracture.
While the injuries were not life-threatening, Mr Whitehead is still unable to complete simple day-to-day tasks or return to work while he waits for a second operation. Defending, Beverley Hackett stated that there was no excuse for Knowles' behaviour.
But, she said: "He comes from a depressing background as a child who from the ages of 2-9 remained in the care of parents who were clearly very unsuitable as people for parenting any children, let alone the number of children they had supervision for.”
She further described how he comes from a home filled with domestic violence, with multiple referrals to social services. At the age of nine, Knowles was taken away.
She adds that he "wasn't used to being in a loving and nurturing environment and struggled". Recorder Flack commented: “What’s shown on the footage is a thug but what you tell me is behind that and not captured on CCTV is a basically damaged youth who’s been let down time and time again by those who should have protected him.”
Sentencing, he also listed Knowles' previous convictions which included multiple robberies, affray, and possession of a knife. He added that the offence brought into court was committed while Knowles was subjected to a youth offending order resulting from a previous offence.
Knowles had previously pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Whitehead and assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Mrs Whitehead. He received a maximum sentence of 24 months for the first offence (reduced to 18 months) alongside an additional four months for the ABH charge and a 22 month youth detention training order.
He will serve around half in custody.
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