A factory worker is in prison after he headbutted a drunken reveller and stole his phone in a late-night robbery.
The victim remembered nothing and woke up with an “uncommonly bad headache”, oblivious to the fact he had been mugged, Teesside Crown Court heard.
He was staggering about on Stockton High Street before he was attacked in the early hours of the morning.
“It is right to say he was very, very, very drunk,” said prosecutor Sue Jacobs today.
“It would have been clear to anybody that he was extremely inebriated. He is clearly vulnerable.”
He had his phone out as he struggled to stand and used walls to keep himself upright at about 12.35am.
Lee Raw, 34, and his girlfriend seemed to show concern for him as they came up and talked to him.
They helped him to pick up cigarettes he had dropped and shared a smoke in a doorway before they walked away.
Seconds later, however, Raw returned, pulled his hood down, headbutted the victim and ran off with his phone.
Mrs Jacobs said of the victim: “He cannot assist us at all as to what happened that evening.
“The next morning he woke up with an uncommonly bad headache, worse than he normally gets with a hangover, but didn’t have any injuries.”
He later said he felt angry and frustrated. His phone was returned as his assailant was quickly arrested with the stolen phone.
Raw confessed what he had done and told police: “It was a daft thing. I don’t know why I did it.”
He said “something had come over him” and he intended to sell the phone.
Raw, of Raunds Avenue, Roseworth, Stockton, admitted robbery - his first conviction.
Alex Bousfield, defending, said Raw went back to the drunken man after he thought he heard something, then decided to take the phone and “lunged towards him with his head”.
He added: “It was clearly a very limited strike. No injury was caused whatsoever.
“The complainant didn’t know he’d been the victim of a robbery until the next morning when the police attended.”
He said Raw had quite a lot to drink himself, did not plan the offence or target the victim and acted on the spur of the moment in a one-off incident.
The judge, Recorder Felicity Davies, said it appeared the headbutt was “not terribly forceful” but it was serious street violence against a vulnerable victim.
She told Raw: “I’m told you don’t really know why you behaved like that, but there it is.”
She jailed him for 18 months.
No comments:
Post a Comment