An 'animalistic' group of vigilantes battered, robbed and stripped naked a tourist before dragging him to a local pub after wrongly accusing him of being a paedophile.
Stephanie Jones, 29, and partner Jordan Davies, 28, are the only two members of the gang who were arrested and charged after refusing to tell police who else was involved in the brutal attack. They marched their victim from his caravan to the Sea Horse pub in Newquay, where he was then chucked out and left bleeding in the street before a female member of the gang kicked him in the face while laughing.
Police detained the two defendants a few days after the assaul, however it took authorities more than three years to charge them, a delay one of their advocates said "beggared belief" and which the judge at Swansea Crown Court described as "so egregious it is quite startling". The victim, a Lithuanian national living London, had visited west Wales in his camper van back in July, 2018.
Craig Jones, prosecuting, said on the night of July 18 he was parked up in the centre of Newquay near the Sea Horse Inn and was preparing for bed when a group of people who had seemingly "taken against his presence having convinced themselves without any foundation that he was a paedophile" approached the vehicle. The gang used mobile phone torches to locate and beat the man, strip him naked, as well as steal from him his iPad, phone and laptop along with cash and bank cards.
Mr Jones said the victim was then forced to go to the Sea Horse pub to "degrade and humiliate" him further. He said the victim asked people in the bar for help but "for reasons that are not clear" he was told to leave the premises.
The injured and distressed man sat on the pavement outside and then the female member of the group - later identified as Jones - kicked him forcibly in the head before laughing. The court heard that a member of staff from the pub later came out and gave the victim a blanket and took him inside before calling police.
The tourist was taken to hospital where a CT scan revealed a subarachnoid haemorrhage - bleeding on the brain - in addition to the obvious cuts, bruises and severe swelling around the eyes. Mr Jones said that in the hours after the incident Davies chatted to friends on social media about the events of the night, and in one of the messages boasted the victim was "a mess - ha ha" and in another said he had "robbed him and made him walk through Newquay naked".
In other messages Davies expressed concern about the police presence in the town following the attack and about the possibility of being caught, but said he had spoken to others at the scene and they told him they would keep their mouths shut. Co-defendant Jones also effectively made admissions about her involvement in the attack in a Facebook post in which she talked about "the boys" going to the van of a man they believed to be "paedo" and beating him up, something which made her "happy".
He also described how she had told the man to take his clothes off before kicking him in the head. Following inquiries in the town, police arrested Jones and her partner Davies. The other people who took part in the assault and robbery have never been identified.
The court heard details of an impact statement from the victim in which he said he had been working in the tourism sector in London helping to arrange tours and excursions for visitors before taking the fateful trip to Wales. He said following the assault he had gone home to Lithuania for three months to recover, and had been left suffering with panic attacks and psychological problems. He added that the theft of his laptop and iPad - items which he used for his freelance job and which have never been recovered - meant he lost his employment.
Jones and Davies, now both of Glasfryn, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, had previously pleaded guilty to robbery and inflicting grievous bodily harm on the day they were due to stand trial when they appeared in the dock for sentencing. James Hartson, for Davies, described his client as a "very, very immature" young man who had no idea of the seriousness of his conduct on the night in question, and had initially seemed to "glory and revel in it".
Lee Davies, for Jones, said nothing he could say could mitigate the offence itself but he said the defendant's remorse for her actions on the night in question permeated her pre-sentence report. Judge Paul Thomas QC told the defendants they had taken part in an "animalistic" attack on a visitor to Wales, launching a callous and sustained attack on an innocent man and showing him no mercy as they beat and then humiliated him.
The judge said the starting point after trial would have been one of four years imprisonment each, and with a discount of 10 per cent for their guilty pleas that was reduced to 42 months.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
