Farmer left brain damaged after unprovoked attack

A teenager who left a farmer with brain damage from a "sustained and persistent" attack outside a Leeds pub has been jailed for 22 years.

Leon Richards, 19, of Melton Road, Wakefield, punched Christopher Allott in the head before hitting him with a pipe and throwing beer kegs at him outside The New Penny on Call Lane last July.

Richards had denied attempted murder, but changed his plea to guilty after watching CCTV footage of the attack at the start of his trial.

Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court, Judge Guy Kearl said Richards carried out a sustained attack on a man who was lying "motionless and defenceless" on the ground.

The judge said Richards had been out in Wakefield before going to several bars in Leeds, arriving at The New Penny in the early hours of 31 July.

CCTV images showed him sitting at the bar drinking not far from Mr Allott, but there did not seem to be interaction between the two men.

Judge Kearl said the victim was "highly intoxicated" and was asked to leave the pub, which he did, but was attacked by Richards as he stood outside.

The judge said: "You punched him repeatedly and he put up no defence.

"You claimed he had been talking to underage girls, but there was no evidence of this.

"You were taken away and he was too. But then he stood against a lamppost and you could have left at that point but you didn't – you led him to an alleyway, where you punched him and he fell to the ground."

He told the court how Richards kept leaving the scene then returning, inflicting injuries on his victim each time.

He was seen on CCTV hitting him with a pipe "using full force", before picking up a beer keg and smashing it against his head and the upper part of his body a total of 14 times.

Mr Allott was left with a bleed on the brain and was in an induced coma for 10 days, and required hospital treatment for a month.

He was left with fractures to his jaw and cheek, and continuing brain damage.

The court heard a victim impact statement in which Mr Allott said the brain injury affected his balance and the strength in his legs.

He suffered ear damage, hand damage and nerve damage affecting his grip.

He has not been able to work as a farmer since the attack.

"I do not have the energy levels and my ability to organise and make decisions has been impacted," he said.

"It has had a catastrophic affect on my business, as well as on my emotions."

Richards' defence barrister said he accepted what he had done was wrong and was left "disgusted and horrified" at his actions.

He said: "He does not accept that he intended to kill, but when he saw the CCTV he contemplated it and realised the severity of what he had done and he changed his plea to guilty."

Richards, who was 18 at the time of the attack, was sentenced to 22 years partly in a Young Offenders' Institution and then in jail.

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