I win! Sick taunt of yob freed after attack on Afghanistan hero
Victim felt safer on front line than on a night out
A DRUG dealer who walked free from court after attacking a Royal Marine later mocked his victim on Facebook, saying: ‘I win.’
Ben Scott, 31, launched an unprovoked assault on Corporal Marc Jolly last Christmas Eve while the serviceman was on leave visiting family.
Yesterday, as Scott refused to apologise for his gloating on social media, the 27-year-old Marine – who survived a tour of duty in Helmand Province – said he felt safer on the front line in Afghanistan than on a night out at home.
A court heard Scott – who was jailed for conspiracy to supply cocaine in 2010 but now runs a building firm – ambushed Cpl Jolly from behind. He hit him repeatedly in the head, then kicked and stamped on the marine as he lay on the floor.
Scott was given a suspended sentence, and hours later wrote a gloating Facebook post accompanied by a picture of Louis Roederer Cristal champagne – which costs around £140 a bottle. Branding his victim ‘scum’, he said: ‘Real decent people prevail in the end and that scum Marc Jolly can stay at the bottom of my shoe where he belongs. I win.’
Cpl Jolly, a Marine for eight years, said he was still struggling to recover from the attack in his home town of Camborne, Cornwall. The incident came just three months after soldier Dave Curnow was murdered by two drunken thugs in the neighbouring town of Redruth.
Cpl Jolly, who is currently based at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon, had returned home last December to spend Christmas with his family.
He was set upon by Scott outside Tyacks Hotel as he walked to his car at the end of a night out, and was briefly knocked unconscious. Paramedics feared he could have a detached retina. Cpl Jolly said: ‘He hit me 14 times. I had three head wounds that had to be glued back together to stop the bleeding.
‘The manly thing to do is fight someone face to face so they have a fighting chance, but to spring up on someone is cowardly.’
Cpl Jolly, who served eight months in Helmand in 2011 with 42 Commando, suffered deep cuts and bruises and had to wait months for normal vision to return. He added: ‘I didn’t feel comfortable going back to my home town ... the first time was a couple of weeks ago, and I didn’t feel safe. I’d rather be back in Afghanistan – at least you know what you’re getting into.
‘You know you might be in a fire fight, you’re prepared for it – but you don’t expect someone to come up and hit you on the back of the head.’
Scott, from Redruth, pleaded guilty to one charge of assault causing actual bodily harm. He was given a 16-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, at Truro Crown Court last month. He was also ordered to pay Cpl Jolly £4,000 in compensation.
Scott yesterday claimed he had been drinking on the evening of the attack and was remorseful, adding: ‘I do regret what happened. It shouldn’t have gone that far.’ Asked about his Facebook post, he replied: ‘Words are sticks and stones.’
But Cpl Jolly said Scott had ‘got away with it’ by being spared jail. Referring to the Facebook post, he said: ‘I was furious to see it ... But I didn’t stoop down to his level and didn’t retaliate. I just felt it wasn’t worth it.’
PC Paul Hulme, of Camborne police, said: ‘When I heard about the Facebook post I thought it was despicable and showed complete disregard for the courts.’