Thug subjected men he’d bullied at school to night of violence
A SCHOOL bully who boasted of being ‘fresh out of pen’ before tormenting his victim once again has been jailed.
Matthew Meehan, from Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, already has an abysmal criminal record at the age of 26.
The M.E.N. reported how Meehan was locked up in 2016 for a random attack on a dad in the street which left him with a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain. The thug was jailed for three years and four months after admitting affray and assault.
Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard how Meehan was still on licence for those offences when he embarked on yet more violence last December.
He and pal Jake O’Reilly subjected two young men they knew from school to a two-and-a-half hour bullying ordeal that left them screaming, crying and covered in cuts and bruises.
They were punched, kicked, urinated on, robbed and threatened with a broken bottle and rape as they were driven around the Stockport area.
The sadistic attack only came to an end when Meehan and O’Reilly demanded to be taken to the 24-hour McDonald’s in Stockport town centre and began assaulting a security guard.
The victims locked themselves in the disabled toilets until police arrived.
Meehan and O’Reilly were jailed for six years and three months for charges including false imprisonment and assault, and a further nine months for the affray in McDonald’s.
Sentencing them, Judge Bernadette Baxter said she both already have ‘bad’ criminal records and deserved ‘lengthy’ prison terms. She said the night of terror had been ‘a life-changing experience’ for both victims and that they had been caused ‘real psychological harm.’
The pair were given only minor credit for admitting their guilt at a late stage and even their own barristers struggled to find mitigation. Ian McMeekin, defending Meehan, said: “It is always difficult to mitigate when the facts of the offending are so mean, gross and vile. Bullying seems too tame a word.”
Chudi Grant, defending O’Reilly, insisted that his client was not the prime instigator of some of the threats, though he was present throughout.
The court heard how on the night of December 9 last year, Meehan and O’Reilly were at a Gulf petrol station in Offerton at around 2am when they recognised the driver at one of the pumps as someone he had bullied at school. The pair then forced their way into his two-door VW car, even though there was no room, and demanded to be taken to Cheadle, the court heard.
Meehan, who has a long history of offending, added: “You know what time it is for me bro. I’m fresh out of pen. I’m a gangster.” He told the driver’s friend, who was also sitting in the car: “You look a bit shaky. You should be
**** ing shaking around me.” Prosecutor Paul Dockery told the court how the driver then allowed two friends, a woman and a man, to get out of his car and promised to be ‘back in ten minutes.’ But over the course of the next two-and-a-half hours, the driver and his remaining pal were left screaming and crying as they were repeatedly assaulted, humiliated and threatened by Meehan and O’Reilly until the incident at McDonald’s.
When police arrived they found the two men covered in cuts and bruises.
The driver said Meehan had warned he knew his home address, adding: “If you go to the police with this, I’ll burn your **** ing house down.”
Meehan and O’Reilly remained silent as they were sentenced. Jake O’Reilly