Brothers locked up for attack on 16-year-old boy
Two brothers who launched an attack on a 16-year-old boy in the mistaken belief that he had thrown stones at their family home have each been jailed for five years.
Gareth and Aaron Attwood struck after the innocent victim was spotted in the same street the day after the act of vandalism, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
The two men and their 46-year-old father Andrew gave chase in two cars trying to cut off his escape and three other people he had apparently been walking with.
He was cornered in the Fens Pool Nature Reserve at Pensnett and received a beating that left him with a double fracture of the jaw and a broken finger. He also lost a tooth and suffered bruising.
Gareth, aged 21, who lives with his father in nearby Fens Crescent, and 23-year-old Aaron of Westwood Street, Brierley Hill, were each convicted of wounding after an earlier trial and had been remanded in custody for sentencing. Andrew Attwood was acquitted of wounding, but convicted of assaulting a 19-year-old youth.
Trouble flared on July 15 last year, the day after stones had been thrown at the house, the court was told. Four youths were seen walking along Fens Crescent.
They ran away after being confronted by members of the family who then gave chase and cornered the 16-year-old and the 19-year-old. The other two youths escaped.
Mr Christopher O'Driscoll, defending, said: "The 16-year-old was hanging around with the wrong people on this occasion and paid a very high price for that. Two of the other people who were with him were intending to cause more trouble for members of this family."
The two Attwood brothers were each jailed for five years for wounding the 16-year old and their father received a six-month prison sentence for assaulting the 19-year-old.
Judge Michael Dudley told them: "The youngest victim was the innocent one in the group and was left in a terrible state when the two brothers had finished with him."
After the hearing the father of the 16-year-old victim, of Kingswinford, said: "He was so badly beaten up he was unrecognisable. He had never been involved in any stone throwing."
"It was terrible. Fortunately he is quite a confident young lad and I think he will come out of this alright although the jaw still gives him trouble over 12 months later.
"I do not care about the men who did this to him. Neither I nor my son knew anything about them before this happened. All I was interested in was justice being done."
