Two jailed after man was found unconscious with head injuries in town centre hostel

Two men have been jailed after a man was found unconscious with head injuries in a town centre hostel.

The three had been out earlier in Middlesbrough and the injured man had been involved in an incident in Linthorpe Road.

A member of staff later found him unconscious in his room at Stages Academy and he was taken to hospital.

Police later studied CCTV footage inside the hostel and they arrested Mark Watson, 25, and Michael Lawrence, 23, on charges of assaulting him in his room.

Prosecutor Liam O’Brien told Teesside Crown Court that Watson accepted that he was responsible for causing some of the injuries but not all of them.

A staff member who saw the victim when he returned to the hostel in Bridge Street West before the attack said that the only injury he had was a small mark above one eye.

But the Crown accepted Watson’s basis of plea because there were no witnesses to disprove it.

Lawrence denied attacking him in the incident on September 7, which the Crown accepted on the day of his trial, and he pleaded guilty to stealing the victim’s bottle of vodka from his room.

Lawrence had 41 convictions for 84 offences and Watson had 39 convictions for 92 offences, eight for assaults and one in September 2013 for assault on police.

Alex Bousfield, defending Watson, said that the victim had also been left unconscious when he was involved in the previous altercation in Linthorpe Road.

Shaun Dryden, defending Lawrence, said that he had always denied the hostel assault but he had admitted stealing the vodka.

Judge Howard Crowson told them: “Watson, you must have caused some of the injuries, and you have got antecedents which is aggravating.

“Lawrence you took advantage of the fight that was going on to steal the vodka.”

Watson, of Britannia Place, Redcar, was jailed for four months with £80 victim surcharge and £250 costs after he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Lawrence, of Borough Road, Middlesbrough, was jailed for eight weeks with £80 surcharge and £80 costs for the admitted theft.

The judge told them that they should be released immediately because Watson had served a longer period on remand and Lawrence had done the equivalent of a 70 day sentence by being electronically tagged on bail.