Horrific CCTV: Leeds station attacker jailed for three years

A TEENAGER who was seen celebrating after a double attack at Leeds Railway Station that left one of his victims with a fractured skull has been locked up for three years.

Charlie Cooper-Jones, 19, had already punched Cameron Shields in an earlier confrontation after seeing him try to kiss his girlfriend, who Mr Shields had known from school.

A friend had intervened and the incident ended but unfortunately the two groups met up again at the station, Patrick Gallagher prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

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Mr Shield and his friend Samuel Bates went to speak to the man who had intervened but, seeing them, Cooper-Jones rushed across and struck Mr Shield twice.

Mr Gallagher said the second punch was so forceful it was likely Mr Shields was already unconscious before he hit the floor, striking his head hard and resulting in a double fracture to the skull.

He was not moving when his attacker then kicked him twice to the head, the second blow being so forceful it moved him across the floor.

When Mr Bates intervened he was also then attacked. He was punched and kicked and left semi-conscious while Cooper-Jones was seen on camera posturing in triumph. Mr Shields spent two days in hospital as a result of his injuries.

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Mark Brookes for Cooper-Jones said he had been fully co-operative when arrested, saying he was “disgusted with himself” in interview.

He said Cooper-Jones had over-reacted after a previous, unrelated incident in which his girlfriend had been assaulted on a night out.

Cooper-Jones, of Station Road, Marsden, near Huddersfield, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and assault on May 20.

Sentencing him to three years in a young offender institution, Judge Colin Burn said: “You are obviously a well-built individual and if not the first, then the second blow in the station forecourt obviously knocked him out and sent him to the ground as if he’d been poleaxed.”

After the case Detective Inspector Stuart Mellish, of British Transport Police, said it was a horrific attack by Cooper-Jones but thankfully the man seriously injured had made a speedy recovery.

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