Hartlepool thugs left stranger battling for life with brain injuries after unprovoked street attack

Sean Carroll, 33, and Jamie Hunt, 30, from Hartlepool had been drinking after appearing at court for an earlier street battle, when they pounced on an innocent victim walking with his girlfriend for a bus home.

They knocked him to the ground and he was kicked in the head as he lay unconscious near Middlesbrough bus station, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Police who rushed to the scene found the man bleeding from a head wound with a trainer imprint on his forehead.

Hospital doctors found that he had a fractured skull with bleeding on the brain and they had to remove a section of his skull to relieve the swelling, said prosecutor Ellen Wright.

The March 11 attack left him in a critical condition and when he was interviewed in May his speech was still slurred as if he was drunk.

Judge Howard Crowson said that his injuries could not have been more serious for an attack of its kind.

Both men had previous convictions for violence and had been arrested after a street fight over a woman in central Hartlepool on July 21 last year involving hammers, sticks and a golf club.

Carroll also threatened to burn down a house on August 18 after police were called to an address in Wentworth Grove, Hartlepool, where he could be seen through a kitchen window armed with a kitchen knife and then a samurai sword.

A week later he was found unconscious in Uppingham Street with a with a bag of cannabis in his pocket.

He was arrested again on October 3 after making off from a Morrison's garage without paying for £31 of diesel.

He was also charged with fraud after selling 25 gold rings at Cash Generators which had been stolen in a Hartlepool burglar

Carroll of Firby Close, Hartlepool, was jailed for four years after he pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm, possession of cannabis, threats to destroy property, making off without payment, threatening behaviour, and breach of a suspended sentence.

Hunt, of Jameson Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for three years and nine months after he pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm, affray, and possession of offensive weapon.