Teenager locked up after hitting love rival with hammer in 'savage and premeditated' attack
A man who embedded a hammer in the head of a love rival has been locked up for eight years.
Tyler Bannister, aged 18, from Wednesfield, was said to pose such a risk to the public that he will be monitored for four years longer than usual on his release.
He suspected the victim had a sexual relationship with his ex-girlfriend before he had split up with her, a judge was told.
The pair swapped insults on Facebook Messenger and the defendant started carrying a hammer taken from his father’s garage for ‘safety,’ Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Bannister, a student at Wolverhampton’s Military Preparation College in Newhampton Arts Lab, was walking through the city after leaving a party at a friend’s house when he spotted his 17-year-old love rival in the underpass below the Ring Road’s Bilston Street roundabout, said Miss Michelle Heeley, QC, prosecuting.
Confronted
He ran back to the flat and pulled the hammer from his duffel bag.
Bannister returned to the scene where he was confronted by his ex-girlfriend.
The girl was standing between them when the blow was struck.
The defendant fled but gave himself up to police two days later.
'I am the one with the life sentence'
The weapon was embedded in the head of the victim until removed during emergency surgery.
He still walks with a pronounced limp and has a partially paralysed left arm.
He said: “At some time he will be free again. I am the one with the life sentence.”
The defendant, from Hyde Road, was acquitted of attempted murder but admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possession of a weapon.
Judge James Burbidge QC told him: “The savage nature of this premeditated attack makes me sure you pose a significant risk to the public.”
