Hartlepool thugs jailed for nine and six years for 30-minute attack on vulnerable man in his own home

They claimed that they had not touched their victim who proudly invited them to see his newly decorated flat and ended up unconscious with a broken eye socket and nose and a bootmark on the back of his neck.

A jury at Teesside Crown Court did not believe Geoffrey Vanes, 34, and Brandon Moore, 20, after another resident in the block of flats in Flint Walk, Hartlepool, heard the sound of “fighting” in the terrifying late night attack on August 30 last year.

He looked from his window and he saw the men walking off with carrier bags of PlayStation equipment.

The victim regained consciousness and staggered to a woman neighbour’s flat.

She booked him a taxi to his mother’s home, and his mother almost fainted when she saw him bleeding heavily and in shock.

Prosecutor Paul Newcombe said: “The last thing I remember there was something waving in my face and they said ‘If you mention it to anybody I will wipe you off the face of the earth. When I came to I was lying on the floor next to my bed. I did not have my mobile phone, they had taken my phone.”

Mr Newcombe said that the victim invited the men to his flat , he was on his PlayStation having a couple of drinks and said: “Do you want to see the wallpaper I’ve put up in my bedroom, it looks nice?

Reading the victim’s statement, he said: “I turned to go back into my front room and Brandon started jumping on me trying to boot me and everything. Then the other big lad walked up to me and smashed me in the face. Brandon dragged me into my bedroom. Brandon was stamping on my head and my nose several times. Blood was dripping off my nose onto the floor. That’s the last thing I remember.

”I did not dare go out that night. I was petrified to go out in case they were still there.”

Mr Newcombe said Moore told police he had met the victim once before, adding: “He said ‘I don’t know how he got the injuries’.”

Matthew Collins, defending, said: “He has sought to better himself while in custody and he knows that the best years of his life are gone.

”He is still a young man now.”

Rod Hunt, defending Vanes, said: “Although it took a long time to get to court through no fault of his own, he has been on bail throughout.”

Vanes, of Chatham Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for nine years and Moore of Milbank Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for six years after they were found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and theft.

Judge Paul Watson QC told them: “It was an appalling and savage attack on [the victim], who had invited you into his home and was in no state to stand up to your merciless attack which went on for half an hour.”