Thug gets 12 years jail for Black Country revenge attack that injured victim's brain

Phillip Bolton was battered with a brick, crook lock and tree branch when ambushed by four men, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The gang had been assembled by 38-year-old Keith Love who was among the attackers when they struck in Mill Street, Great Bridge and left the victim with a traumatic brain injury.

The two men had been in dispute for a long time and there were suggestions that Love had been assaulted by Mr Bolton the previous evening.

Miss Samantha Forsyth, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court: "This was a revenge attack. The defendant had suffered some minor injury just before it happened."

The armed gang headed for a patch of waste land in Mill Street, Great Bridge where they knew Mr Bolton regularly went to meet friends and drink.

He was unarmed and tried to flee but was hunted down and given a brutal beating that left him close to death, the court heard.

Blows 'rained down' on the defenceless man who was battered on the forehead with the brick and hit on the body with the crook lock and tree branch on July 10 2014.

Miss Forsyth continued: "It was a sustained and repeated attack with weapons. He suffered a traumatic brain injury. There were fractures of the eye socket that extended through to the base of the skull. The attack has had a profound effect on him."

Mr Bolton, who has reportedly been forced to move, said in a statement: "I now live like a recluse. My life has been turned upside down. This has changed everything."

Love, from Powis Avenue, Tipton had been convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and possession of the crook lock as an offensive weapon at an earlier trial and had been remanded for pre-sentence reports.

Mr Michael Brooks, defending, said the jury had acquitted him of having the brick during the attack and this was the weapon that had caused the most serious injury. But Judge Kristina Montgomery QC told Love, the only person convicted of involvement in the attack: "It does not appear that you struck the blow with the brick but I do not agree this makes your role less serious.

"This was a joint attack for which all those in the team were responsible which could very easily have ended his life. You took the leading role because it was you who had an axe to grind that day. "