Thug jailed for flat attack
VICTIM’S SKULL WAS FRACTURED DURING BRUTAL ASSAULT
Reporter A VIOLENT thug left a man unconscious and with a fractured skull after brutally attacking him in a block of flats.
Michael Bell, who has previous convictions for glassing people, launched the vicious assault on Gary Smith inside Redheugh Court, in Teams, Gateshead.
The 37-year-old punched his victim in the face before repeatedly stamping on and kicking his head as he lay helpless on the floor, a court heard.
Bell then fled the scene on foot, leaving Mr Smith unconscious on the ground.
Paramedics were called when the victim was later found and he was taken to hospital where it was discovered he’d suffered a fractured skull.
CCTV footage was later viewed by police and Bell was identified and arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm with intent, to which he pleaded guilty.
Now, Bell, of Redheugh Court, has been jailed for six years and given a two-year extended licence after a judge at Newcastle Crown Court branded him dangerous.
Locking him up, Judge Tim Gittin said: “Thus it comes to the age of 37 and you committing one of the more serious offences in the calendar of violent offences when most young men calm themselves down and move away from violence.
“You have demonstrated by your previous convictions a pattern, albeit less serious lately, a pattern that continued into your mid-30s of using violence in confrontations.”
The court was told Mr Smith had been visiting Redheugh Court on February 24 this year and was an associate of Bell and had earlier spoken to him.
The victim had then left the flats to go to Newcastle city centre before returning later in the evening.
It was then, in the communal part of the block, that Bell launched his attack, prosecutors said.
Judge Gittins said: “It was captured on CCTV footage, which has been described. It was on a man you knew from an earlier prison sentence.
“You spent at least some of the day together and you were drinking. He was a visitor to the block of flats you were living in.
“At a later stage, you were seen to approach him and knock him to the ground with punches before, in a vicious attack, you repeatedly stamped on his head, I’m told on at least five occasions, following up with a kick for good measure before you desisted.
“Each one of those blows, whether you were wearing slippers, could have been fatal.”
Mr Smith was taken to hospital after suffering a fractured skull, which left him with blurred vision, headaches and dizziness, but didn’t need surgery.
The court was told Bell had a string of previous convictions for violence, including two wounding offences in 2003 and 2005 when he used a glass as a weapon.
Deeming him to be a danger to the public and extending his licence by two years, the judge added: “You are a danger to the public in the sense that you are a significant risk of causing serious harm to the public by use of violence in the future.”
Tony Davis, mitigating, said Bell had been wearing pyjamas and slippers at the time when he had come out his flat and attacked Mr Smith. He told the court: “If he were intent on causing really, really serious bodily harm, the reality is he could have armed himself with a weapon from his flat. He certainly would have been in a position to put something more destructive on his feet than a pair of slippers.”