Edwinstowe pair smashed victim’s skull with a weapon

Deacon Cooper was with his mother outside a chip shop on High Street, on January 18, at about 7.30pm, when two men, with whom there was ‘a history of falling out’, approached, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

Cooper's mother became upset, but one of the men said: “Nothing's going to happen, I’ve just come to get some chips.”

However, Kevin Jones, prosecuting, said Cooper left, but returned five minutes later with Reece O'Brien.

CCTV showed O’Brien hitting one man over the head with a weapon and both of them kicking and punching him when he was on the ground.

He was taken to Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, where surgeons fitted a titanium plate in his head because a skull bone had been ‘broken into small pieces’.

Cooper and O'Brien also went to his home with four other men, on March 6, and smashed the windows of his car, kitchen and living room, before attacking his garden fence and caravan.

Cooper, aged 21, of Trinity Road, and 27-year-old O’Brien, of Henton Road, both of Edwinstowe, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and criminal damage.

Simon Eckersley, mitigating, said O'Brien was ‘lightly convicted’ from when he was 17 and has remained offence-free since.

He described him as a ‘hard-working family man’, who had written a letter of apology.

‘Out of character’

Barry Grennan said Cooper has never been in trouble before and the offence was ‘spur of the moment’ and ‘out of character’.

The court heard the complainants asked for £15,000 from Cooper’s mother to drop the charges, which ‘she categorically refused’, and that ‘fairly horrific social media messages’ had been sent to Cooper and his mother prior to the incident.

And Mr Grennan said the criminal damage took place after Cooper’s mother's home had been damaged by his victim's brother.

Judge Rosalind Coe QC said they were both ‘equally culpable’ of ‘causing a grave injury’, but there was no permanent damage.

The pair were jailed for two years, suspended for 24 months, and ordered to complete 20 rehabilitation days and 100 hours’ unpaid work. They were fined £250 for the damage.

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