Two laughing torturers who left a man brain damaged before he could be rescued by police were today each jailed for 11-and-a-half years.
A frightened witness called police to the scene of a bloodbath in a house in central Middlesbrough with walls, doors and carpets splashed with blood in the hallway, lounge, front room, kitchen and bathroom.
They found five drunken men laughing around a pile of clothes on a chair, and when officers asked them what was happening they indicated that nothing had happened.
Prosecutor Liam O’Brien told Teesside Crown Court that the men were laughing and speaking among themselves in a foreign language, and then the officers heard grunting coming from under the pile of clothes.
Underneath it they discovered the victim, who had been severely assaulted and was seriously injured.
His head and face were drenched in blood, both his cheeks were fractured and his eyes were so swollen that they could not be opened.
Paramedics rushed the man to James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, where X-rays revealed he had significant brain injuries.
He had bloodclots and bruising to both sides of the inside of his brain and generalised swelling of the brain causing increased pressures on the skull.
Both of the man's cheekbones and parts of his face were fractured, and he had cracked teeth.
He had been kicked and stamped in a prolonged attack with breaks between the repeated assaults.
The victim was in a confused state, and in hospital he was stabilised without surgical intervention and he was forced to remain there for three weeks until he could be released.
His two attackers, who were Lithuanians, had accused him of stealing their vodka or cigarettes when they returned home to Colville Street, Gresham, after they met during a drinking session on the banks of the Tees on the evening of Tuesday April 15.
The police were called at 9.30pm by a Polish man who stumbled on the scene when he went to the house for a cigarette.
They arrested all five men present before forensic tests showed blood on the trainers of Evaldas Tamosiunas, 27, and Rimantas Janavicius, 35.
The victim said in victim impact statements, the latest on December 4, that he was left with memory loss, panic attacks and fear of being attacked in public.
He could not even take his children to public events, and was still attending hospital for brain scans.
He said in a report read to the court: “It has changed my life and I am sure that it will affect me for the rest of my life.”
Janavicius pleaded guilty and Tamosiunas was convicted after a trial, when both men had originally tried to blame the Pole.
Tom Mitchell, defending Janavicius, said that he did not begin the attack but he joined in from time to time.
Both men had no previous convictions in the UK or abroad.
Zoe Passfield, defending, Tamosiunas, said that it was conceded that it was a serious offence, and his guilty plea was given to the Crown Prosecution Service before the start of the trial.
The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC told the men that they had attacked a defenceless and vulnerable victim for no obvious reason, except that they suspected him of drinking their vodka or stealing a packet of cigarettes.
The judge said: “The injuries were described as horrific, a very apt adjective, having seen the photographs.
“This is a case which falls into the top end of the sentencing bracket.
"It is a further aggravating feature that you were both drunk at the time.”
The men, both of Colville Street, were each jailed for 11-and-a-half years for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
