A 19-year-old involved in two separate violent attacks in Penrith has been given an immediate two-year jail term.
Reece Troy was first involved in group violence on October 1 last year. Words were exchanged inside the Pinny pub, Burrowgate, before trouble flared outside.
The victim recalled talking to Troy but then nothing more as he was punched and then had his head banged against a skip during an attack by several men.
He lost consciousness and attended hospital where two forehead wounds were glued and a head injury stapled.
The man — a firefighter and self-employed joiner — also suffered two black eyes, facial pain, bruising and injuries to his shoulder and elbow.
“He didn’t see his children for a few weeks simply because he didn’t want them to see their father in the state he was,” Brendan Burke, prosecuting, told Carlisle Crown Court today.
His work was also affected and he also spoke in an impact statement of ongoing pain.
In the aftermath, Troy told police he was smashed out of his head having attended a memorial service for a friend earlier that day, and had gone sick by attacking the man.
While on bail for that offence, Troy then beat up another man during a separate second incident several hundred yards from the first.
This occurred at the rear of Penrith’s Devonshire Shopping Arcade. His victim was walking in that area when he met Troy and subjected to a serious sudden attack, also losing consciousness. This left him with a fractured eye socket, leg pain and cuts and bruises to his head and arms.
Both men were left covered in blood, the court heard.
Troy admitted his role in the attacks afterwards and pleaded guilty to two counts of causing grievous bodily harm.
The court heard of Troy’s childhood struggles and mental health issues, the death of a friend and his alcohol and substance misuse.
A young father, he was desperately in need of professional help, said his barrister, Kim Whittlestone. “He knows he cannot go on like this,” she said. “He is sorry for his offending.”
Judge Michael Fanning acknowledged the challenges faced by Troy, previously of Eamont Mews, Penrith, and evidence which pointed to young people not being fully mature until the age of 25.
But he said a two-year prison sentence had to be immediate, concluding after reading detailed background reports that Troy was an aggressive, unpredictable and, in fact, dangerous young man.
“People are entitled to go to pubs and be in town centres without the risk of being attacked by a violent thug,” concluded the judge.
