News / Pair jailed for vicious assault
TWO Shetland men were jailed for more than four years each at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday after they admitted assaulting a local man so violently he was left “unrecognisable”.
Dale Henry, aged 29, and Damian Hunt, 27, were arrested a week after they attacked the man at his Lerwick home on 3 May in the mistaken belief that he had raped Hunt’s girlfriend.
The court heard that Hunt had tried to persuade his girlfriend to go to the police but when she refused he decided to take the law into his own hands and took Henry, who was extremely drunk, with him. Later Hunt’s informants had admitted they were wrong.
Last month both men admitted repeatedly punching, kicking and stamping on their victim’s head and body to his severe impairment and permanent injury, as well as attempting to pervert the course of justice by disposing of their blood soaked clothes and footwear.
Hunt was on bail at the time of the assault and Henry was on early release from jail.
Appearing from Craiginches prison where they have been held since 12 May, Sheriff Graeme Napier told the pair that the only question in his mind was whether they should be sent to the High Court for a longer sentence.
Henry’s defence agent Gregor Kelly said his client had little memory of the attack after consuming four litres of cider and a half bottle of vodka.
However he had been “stunned” when he saw the photographs of his injured victim. “He was sickened by his part in this extremely nasty assault,” Mr Kelly said, adding that he wanted to apologise to his victim.
Henry, who used to skipper a workboat while in his early 20s, had tackled heroin addiction last year, but still had a problem with alcohol which had got him into trouble before.
Mr Kelly said he was using his time in jail to work out in the gym and hoped to leave Shetland with his girlfriend when he was released. “He is deeply remorseful for what he has done and he wishes to make a new start outside of the islands.”
Defence agent Tommy Allan said he could offer no mitigation for Hunt. “I can put forward no justification for this offence and Mr Hunt knows there is no excuse for it.”
He added that Hunt had shown genuine remorse and shock after seeing the photos of his victims, at the sight of which he “visibly changed colour”. He had also given up drugs altogether since going to jail.
Sheriff Napier described it as one of the worst assaults he had seen, and he had given careful consideration whether to refer it to the High Court for a longer sentence than the maximum of five years he could impose.
He sentenced Henry to 52 months in jail and Hunt for 57 months as he had been on bail at the time, adding that it was not “the privilege of vigilantes such as you” to take the law into their own hands.
The sentences had been reduced due to early pleas of guilty.
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