Stripped, stamped on and dunked in water: Boxing club 'bullies' locked up for 12-hour attack
A gang, who 'took the law into their own hands' and tormented an innocent man while holding him captive for almost 12 terrifying hours, have been jailed for a total of 25 years.
The victim was plied with drink at the Black Country Boxing Club in Lye before being viciously attacked when he refused to admit to burgling the premises - an offence he had not committed, a jury heard.
"He was beaten and repeatedly assaulted by four people," Miss Sophie Murray, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court. "He was kicked, stamped on and possibly stabbed in the leg with a stiletto knife."
The man, who lost consciousness several times during the ordeal, was stripped to the waist and tied to a chair.
The helpless 25-year-old thought he was going to die as his head was repeatedly dunked in a container full of water and a Samurai sword put to his throat, added the prosecutor.
The attackers - Asa Cartwright, aged 30, his sister Charlotte, 23, Jak Skeldon, the 26-year-old son of the boxing club's owner and Ricky Green, 29 - continued the beating throughout the night.
Then they contacted Ashleigh Round, whose name was mentioned during the violence, and knew the victim.
He went to the boxing club where the man had now been forced into a pink onesie as a final humiliation by his tormentors.
Round, aged 25, drove the unconscious victim to the Hagley area where he abandoned him in a country lane.
The man, who is not being named at the request of police, was found wandering bare footed and semi conscious in the onesie at Wassell Grove at 9.30am on May 10 2015 by a woman who later told police: "He was just staring into space." The attack is thought to have started around 10pm the previous evening.
The victim had multiple cuts and bruises from 'head to toe' and was treated in hospital for several days. He then had threatening phone calls warning him not to cooperate with the police investigation.
Miss Murray concluded: "This has had a significant impact on him and his family. There was intimidation and as a result their house is on the market. They are moving out of the area."
Mr Colin McCarraher, defending, conceded: "It is difficult to understand how things got out of control so quickly and degenerated in the way they did."
Asa Cartwright from Norfolk Road, Wollaston; Skeldon of Holy Cross Lane, Belbroughton and Ricky Green of no fixed address were convicted by a jury of false imprisonment and assault. Each was jailed for six years.
Charlotte Cartwright from Ashton Park Drive, Brierley Hill - the only defendant of previous good character - was found guilty of the same offences and locked up for four and a half years.
Judge Amjad Nawaz told them: "You were all in this together. This was a group attack, perpetrated over many hours during which the victim was rendered unconscious. Once it had started there was no stopping it as you deliberately took the law into your own hands."
The jury convicted Round from Wynnall Lane, Stourbridge of kidnap and he was sent to prison for thee years. All defendants denied all charges.
Black Country Boxing Club owner Mr Roy Skeldon said after his son and the other defendants had been led to the cells: "I would hate any of this to reflect on the club which has done a lot of good for the local community over the past six years.
"The people did not have permission to be there and it was ten months before I learned from the police exactly what was supposed to have happened. If they did what the jury has convicted them of, they deserve all they got. I have hated bullies all my life."
