Claw hammer attacker handed suspended sentence after 'putting life in order'

Simon Pugh saw a young man hiding behind a bush and heard loud banging when he was dropped off outside the address in Alexandra Road, Walsall at 2am.

When he traced the source of the noise, Thomas Garner, who was just 24 days past his 18th birthday at the time, put his head over the fence and maintained he was taking a short cut, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

He pulled out the hammer and repeatedly hit Mr Pugh when he looked away after grabbing hold of him.

Mr Rabi Sidhu, prosecuting, said: “It was a sustained assault with six blows.”

The victim suffered a gash to the head and bad bruising to his face and body.

Garner, now 19, had travelled to the area from Blackburn to see a girlfriend, was traced some time later and picked out as the culprit in an identity parade, said Mr Sidhu.

Mr Christopher O’Gorman, defending, said his client regretted his actions.

Protection

He said: “He had developed an entrenched pattern of low level violence, dishonesty and possession of offensive weapons which culminated in this serious offence.

“He carried a weapon for protection after being robbed and assaulted himself but has seen what can happen if you are armed in that way.

“He does not want it to happen again and has turned his life around since the incident.”

Garner from Dickinson Close, Blackburn, is now working in a warehouse with his girlfriend expecting a baby, the court heard.

He pleaded guilty to wounding Mr Pugh on September 29 last year and received two years detention suspended for two years with a three-month night time curfew and was ordered to £250 compensation.

Judge Martin Jackson told him: “When he was looking away you, in a cowardly action, hit him several times on the head with the claw hammer.

“It must have been an extremely frightening experience for him but it seems you have reached a turning point in your life and are prepared to stop offending.

“I am satisfied you are putting your life in order.”