Thugs kicked and punched homeless man
A HOMELESS man was hit on the head with a heavy fizzy wine bottle and repeatedly kicked and punched in a brutal town centre assault.
The victim was set upon by three people, two of whom were aged just 16, as he bedded down for the night and was left with a gash on his head.
Swansea Crown Court heard the rough sleeper has now started to get his life back on track and has stable accommodation but he will never forget what the trio did to him.
Helen Randall, prosecuting, said the attack took place on the night of April 7, 2019, in the middle of Neath. She said the victim was preparing to sleep on the steps of Lloyds Bank when Michael David Bowden approached him on his mobility scooter.
Bowden began shouting at the man and accused him of “robbing his drugs”.
Bowden then kicked the man in the face before grabbing a discarded fizzy wine bottle and hitting him on the head with it.
The court heard that Bowden’s son Callum Michael Bowden and the son’s friend, Iwan George Otis Tippett, both aged 16, arrived on the scene having been drinking together in the town centre.
Miss Randall said the teenagers joined in the attack, with Callum Bowden repeatedly punching the victim to the head and Tippett repeatedly kicking him.
A female passer-by witnessed the assault and called police. She rushed to the aid of the stricken man and bandaged his heavily-bleeding head wound.
The three attackers had fled prior to the arrival of the police but were all identified, traced and arrested that same night.
The prosecutor said the homeless man’s blood was subsequently found on clothes seized from the trio.
While Michael Bowden was under investigation police went to his flat in Windsor Road in Neath and found 5.7g of heroin and 27g of cannabis in the living room and 14g of amphetamine in the freezer in the kitchen.
The court heard Tippett came to the attention of police again just after midnight on Christmas Day when officers were called to a domestic disturbance at his home in Neath town centre. He initially sat on the floor and told officers he wasn’t going to be arrested by them, and when the PCS moved in to cuff him he began to struggle violently, punching an officer in the face and kicking him in the shins.
Tippett then threatened to stab the constables.
The defendant was eventually restrained but as he was being led down the stairs he threatened to spit at the officers and “lunged” forward, causing them all to fall.
Michael David Bowden, aged 35, of Windsor Road, Neath; Callum Michael Bowden, now aged 18, of Valley View, Cimla; and Iwan George Otis Tippett, now also aged 18, of Windsor Road, Neath, all admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm (GBH).
Michael Bowden also admitted possession of heroin, amphetamine, and cannabis, while Tippett admitted assaulting an emergency worker.
The court heard Michael Bowden has 17 previous convictions for 42 offences, 25 of which are for drugs matters.
Callum Bowden has one previous conviction for four offences, including one for battery. Tippett has nine previous convictions for 20 offences, including two for ABH and 11 for batteries and common assaults.
Robin Rouch, for Michael Bowden, accepted his client had a poor record but said he had no previous convictions for offences of violence. He said his client used a wheelchair, had one remaining leg, and was not in good health.
David Singh, for Callum
Bowden, said it may have been that his client was initially concerned about the welfare of his father when he arrived on the scene but it was accepted his behaviour thereafter had been unlawful. He said the defendant came from an “extremely difficult background” and was a daily user of cannabis.
Stephen Thomas, for Tippett, said a psychologist’s report into the defendant detailed his “very unstable upbringing” and his low IQ.
Judge Huw Rees said Michael Bowden had been the “instigator and main protagonist” of the attack and that it was probably the blow with the bottle which had caused the head wound.
He said the two teenagers had then joined in and the three together had clearly intended to inflict more serious harm than they in fact did.
Giving Michael Bowden a 10% discount for his late guilty plea, the judge sentenced him to 22 months in jail for the homeless man assault, and giving him a one-third discount for his pleas to the drugs offences he sentenced him to four months. The sentences will be served consecutively, making an overall sentence of 26 months.
Callum Bowden also received a 10% discount for his guilty plea to GBH but the judge said in his case he was satisfied there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and he sentenced him to nine months in a young offender institution, suspended for 12 months, and ordered him to complete a rehabilitation course, a drug treatment programme and 180 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Rees also gave Tippett a 10% discount for his guilty plea to GBH and sentenced him to 11 months’ detention with an additional two months for the assault on the police officers to run consecutively, making an overall sentence of 13 months in a young offender institution.