'Cowardly thugs' beat man, 72, in savage attack at his home

A JUDGE labelled two teenagers "cowardly thugs" after hearing how they viciously battered a pensioner in a savage attack during a burglary at his home.

The 72-year-old victim was woken by Anthony Drinkwater and Matthew Platts shining a torch on his face as he lay in bed and neighbours then heard him shouting for help as the pair repeatedly punched him.

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday that one of the intruders, Drinkwater, had already raided the man's home twice before and after the latest raid on July 25 he boasted to friends about what they had done.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

When police arrived at the pensioner's home they found blood spattering the walls and bed from the heavily bleeding victim who said he had thought he was going to be killed.

Drinkwater, 19, of no fixed address, and Platts, 17, of Eskdale Grove, Garforth, were each given indeterminate detention in a young offender institution for public protection after they admitted burglary and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Ordering both to serve a minimum of four years nine months minus the time on remand, Judge Paul Hoffman said the savagery of the attack indicated a high degree of sadism. He warned them they would only be released when the Parole Board no longer considered them a danger, and told Drinkwater, "You may be a very old man before that happens".

He added: "You both invaded the home of a vulnerable elderly man of 72 and you subjected him to a terrible and persistent attack in his own bed. The attack was callous, it was brutal, it was ruthless."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It was callous because Drinkwater had only recently been released from a sentence for crimes including burglary at the victim's home, brutal because between them they struck him 20 blows, and ruthless because their purpose was to prevent him identifying them.

Both were strong young men. "In my judgment it is a miracle he did not die under the savagery of your attack," the judge added.

The photographs of the scene "silently demonstrate the ferocity of that attack, the bedclothes saturated with his blood and the walls spattered with it", he said.

The judge said although the victim had recovered physically, the psychological trauma remained and the pensioner could not return home.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Platts also admitted an attempted robbery earlier that night and asked for 20 offences, mainly burglary, to be taken into consideration. Drinkwater asked for the attempted robbery to be taken into consideration.

Carmel Pearson, prosecuting, said the pair had struck between 11pm to midnight when a woman in her 40s was making her way home in Garforth, Leeds, from a night out, putting their hoods up and trying to grab her bag.

They swung her round with the strap as they tried to get it but she used her umbrella to fight them off.

Around 1.30am neighbours of the pensioner also in Garforth, heard noises and one saw the two teenagers approaching his home looking suspicious. They phoned police and then heard the victim shouting "No, no, no" and sounds through the walls before him shouting for help.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The burglars took the pensioner's cash card, which they used to steal 280 from his account. Drinkwater boasted to friends on his phone: "We were in the bloke's bedroom. He woke up and we set about him."

Platts, fearing they had killed the pensioner was remorseful, and was about to give himself up when arrested.

Their victim suffered a black eye, broken nose, swelling of the brain and spent weeks in hospital.

Related topics: