Drugs gang jailed after vicious attack (From Echo)

Drugs gang jailed after vicious attack

2:40pm Tuesday 9th March 2010 in

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THREE thugs who beat a man to a pulp with knuckledusters and a metal baseball bat before kidnapping him have been jailed.

Glen Lashley, 31, Sam Anderson, 21, and John Vassallo, 23, savagely laid into John Martin in Matlock Road, Canvey, shortly after midnight on October 17 last year.

Lashley repeatedly smashed Mr Martin over the head with the bat while Anderson attacked him with two knuckledusters, Basildon Crown Court heard.

Vassallo then helped them dump the blood-soaked victim in the back of a van so they could flee the scene after stunned neighbours called police.

Officers followed the Vauxhall Astra van until the three men abandoned the car and ran away. A dog unit was brought in and the men were caught running through a field a short time later.

The attack left Mr Martin with two broken hands, a broken arm, a fractured eye socket, and extensive cuts and bruises all over his head and body.

Permanent metal plates were used to repair some of the damage when he underwent an operation during a three-day stay in hospital.

Mr Martin later told police the onlything he could remember was seeing flashes of light as the weapons struck his head.

Jacqueline Carey, mitigating, said Lashley was high on ecstasy during the attack, but had stayed clean of drugs since being taken into custody.

She said the violence was the result of a drug deal which went “horribly wrong”.

Grant Benjamin, mitigating, said Anderson was not prepared to shed “crocodile tears” for the attack, even though he accepted the level of violence used was completely unacceptable.

Judge Christopher Mitchell said: “This was a horrid attack on this man. This was group violence with serious weapons and it can only be met with serious sentences.”

Lashley of Fairview, Canvey, and Anderson of Barbara Avenue, Canvey, both admitted a charge of grievous bodily harm with intent, but both denied a charge of kidnapping. They were both sentenced to five-and-a-half-years in prison.

Vassallo of Woodside View, Benfleet, admitted kidnapping, but denied a count of grievous bodily harm with intent. He was given four years.

The public gallery was packed with members of their families who shouted out support as they were led away from the dock.