[A] MAN who handed out a “shocking beating” to a love rival at an address in Kendal has been spared immediate prison.
Jake Thomas Wilson, 20, repeatedly punched Matthew Lightburn and kicked him several times with socked feet after the victim entered a female’s address uninvited in the early hours of September 4, 2016.
As a fight broke out between the two drunken men – each of whom had romantic links to the female – Wilson left “defenceless and incapable” Mr Lightburn bloodied and with facial injuries so “shocking” his mother didn’t recognise him later in hospital.
Mr Lightburn, who had earlier been out celebrating his birthday, later told police the attack “made me fear for my life”. “I was being kicked to the head and I thought I was going to die,” he stated.
Wilson, of Chapel Field, Burneside, was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court today (FRI) having admitted unlawful wounding.
The court heard he accepted using “excessive self-defence” after being confronted by an “aggressive” Mr Lightburn. Wilson, a man of previous good character, was described as remorseful and a “young man with a good potential for the future”.
After taking time to consider his sentence for what he called a “shocking beating”, Recorder Julian Shaw suspended a 23-month jail term for two years. Wilson must complete 250 hours’ unpaid work and a six-month night-time curfew.
