A 20-YEAR-OLD Penkridge man who brutally stamped on the head of an unconscious man outside a nightspot has been sent to a young offenders institution for three and a half years.
Judge John Wait told Bobby Cox there was a measure of provocation but he added: “When in drink you showed yourself to be capable of dreadful violence.” Daniel Boffey had been punched to the ground by another man in the incident outside the Indy Bar in Wolverhampton, said David Lees prosecuting.
He said there had been some form of dispute between the pair and there had been an altercation followed by a brief fight when they met outside the club.
They had been thrown out of the club with a third man who punched Mr Boffey to the head knocking him out and Cox then stamped on his face and head with what a witness described as “bone-crushing” force.
The witness heard something crack when Cox delivered the stamp in the face with doormen quickly intervening to “mercifully” prevent any further violence.
Cox of Mallard Way, Penkridge, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and the Judge ruled only a subtantial sentence was appropriate for the attack.
After the attack Mr Boffey was unconscious for about five minutes and he was detained in hospital for two days after undergoing surgery.
In a victim impact statement Mr Boffey, a self-employed builder, said that since the incident he had become withdrawn, has problems sleeping and now avoids going out at night.
“I continue to suffer headaches,” he said adding, “the attack has affected both my work and my social life.” Stephen Blower defending stressed to Wolverhampton Crown Court that Cox was not a young man who went out getting drunk and causing trouble.
“He had only gone out this night because his partner was spending the evening with her girlfriends,” said Mr Blower.
“He was at a loose end. He has not drunk since the incident and he has vowed to give up alcohol completely.” The court was told the man who punched Mr Boffey to the ground had been given an eight-month jail term suspended for two years at an earlier hearing.
