Marine recruits colleague to help ambush and batter man having affair with model wife
Pair face jail after ‘military exercise’ that left victim fearing he’d die
A FORMER Royal Marine and a fellow ex-serviceman launched a brutal ‘military operation’ to take revenge on a man who had an affair with one of their wives, a court heard.
Lee Craven, 34, and Steven Walters, 37, face jail after being found guilty of the attack on Kenneth Churchill – another former Marine, who was seeing Craven’s model wife, Zara.
Their plan involved surveillance, tailing Mr Churchill’s car, then ambushing him in a car park with a beating so violent he thought he was ‘going to die’.
Exeter Crown Court heard the attack was in revenge for Mr Churchill having an affair with Mrs Craven while her husband was on an anti-piracy patrol in the Indian Ocean for a private security firm.
Walters monitored the 30-year- old model’s home, in Exmouth, Devon, on July 12 last year, waiting for Mr Churchill to leave.
He then followed the victim, who was driving to his home in Plymouth.
Walters was in phone contact with Craven, who intercepted Mr Churchill as he joined the A38 at Kennford near Exeter and gestured for him to leave the road. Mr Churchill, who was driv- ing a BMW, followed Craven into the car park of the Gissons Arms pub, not realising he was falling into a trap and that Walters was waiting to join in an attack on him.
He was held so tightly in a headlock by Walters that he thought he was going to die, the jury heard, while Craven punched and kicked him in the face.
When he fell to the ground, the pair continued to kick him in the head.
The brutal assault stopped only when passing motorist Diane Wortley saw what was happening and got out of her car to intervene.
Walters told the semi- conscious victim: ‘That’s what you get for seeing his wife.’ Mr Churchill was left with severe facial bruising.
The judge, Recorder John Williams, said: ‘I am quite clear in my view this was a planned attack which was carried out purposefully because of the background of the marriage.
‘It would have continued but for the intervention and I need to consider if it falls outside the normal sentencing guidelines.’ He added: ‘A prison sentence is inevitable in both cases.’
During the trial, the prosecution said the pair had planned their attack and that both men kicked Mr Churchill in the head as he lay defenceless in the car park. Jonathan Barnes, prosecuting, said the affair between 29-year-old Mr Churchill and Mrs Craven had begun a few months before the attack and that there was a history of ill feeling between Craven and the victim.
Both men had been Marines who moved into the security industry. After returning from working abroad, Craven found Mr Churchill living with his wife.
Mr Barnes said that on the night of the ambush the victim noticed a black Vauxhall Astra shadowing him as he left Mrs Craven’s property to drive to his Plymouth flat shortly before 9pm.
‘The jury need to ask themselves whether there was something of a military operation going on – a plan to keep an eye on his movements in Exmouth and follow him and see if there was an opportunity for an attack,’ Mr Barnes added.
‘We say they will have to consider if they planned it in advance and whether Walters was there as back-up to Craven. Mr Churchill says he got out of his car to defend himself.’
Mr Churchill had been based at Bickleigh Barracks, in Plymouth, but is now a close protection bodyguard.
Craven had been a dog handler for Avon and Somerset Police as well as working in the force’s custody suite.
As a security contractor he had helped guard the railway in Dawlish as it was rebuilt and at the time of the attack he was working on the doors of pubs and clubs in Torbay.
Walters, of Exmouth, worked with him and on the night of the assault they were both wearing all-black uniforms which led one witness to mistake them for police.
Craven, of Woodbury, Devon, claimed he was the true victim of the assault and had been run off the road and rammed by Mr Churchill’s car.
Walters said it was pure coincidence that he was passing at the time and was able to come to his friend’s assistance. The nature of Walters’s past military service was not clear.
Both men denied actual bodily harm but were found guilty on Monday when the jury rejected their pleas of self-defence.
Sentencing was adjourned until next week and the judge granted the pair bail.
‘Punched and kicked in the head’