Robbers who left student for dead get 18 years

Two men who robbed and then punched, kicked and stamped on a Yorkshire student they then left for dead in a stream have each been jailed for 18 years for his attempted murder.

Daniel Whiteley, 19, from Barnsley, was frog-marched to a park in Manchester where he was forced to hand over his bank card and pin number.

He was kicked and stamped on and then thrown unconscious into the freezing culvert as his assailants, Michael Brownlie, 26, and Nicholas Lindsay, 22, left and withdrew £250 from his account.

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Lindsay’s girlfriend, Katie Mongan, 18, was sent to a young offender institution for seven years. She also robbed him and delivered two punches during the sustained assault in the early hours of February 28.

Mr Whiteley, a first-year English student at the University of Manchester, came across the defendants by chance in a takeaway in Fallowfield after a night out with fellow students at a city centre bar, Manchester Crown Court heard.

It is understood Brownlie had been asking passers-by for cigarettes and Mr Whiteley was also approached but he had none to give. He was met with abuse by Mongan and staff asked her to leave the shop.

Mr Whiteley later bumped into the trio, who had been drinking all day, as he walked home. The student was told to hand over his watch, a birthday present from his father, and was then shoved into a nearby park where he was robbed of his mobile phone and bank card and then beaten unconscious.

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He was then carried over a fence and thrown into the water by Lindsay and Mongan’s half-brother, Brownlie.

After stealing his cash Brownlie got a taxi home and Lindsay and Mongan went to a McDonald’s restaurant for breakfast.

A passing cyclist heard a groan from the stream several hours after the attack and Mr Whiteley was pulled out of the water by paramedics.

He had suffered extensive bleeding to the brain and underwent life-saving surgery, spending seven days in intensive care. He also suffered a collapsed lung, swellings so severe over both eyes that they could not be opened and a footprint bruise to his forehead.

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Mr Whiteley was in court along with the cyclist who found him. The court heard he made “a remarkable physical recovery” but the long-term effects are still unknown, and he suffers from concentration problems, headaches and dizzy spells.

Judge Robert Atherton told Mongan: “You hurt him and you meant to do really serious harm.”

Addressing her co-defendants, he said: “Michael Brownlie and Nicholas Lindsay, you did not leave it at that. You went on and tried to kill him.”

The judge said it was clear the beating was remorseless, with “blows to his head and to his stomach area so that there was crushing internally” and “marks and injuries to his neck and head which indicate the head had gone from side to side”.

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“In the middle of the night in a cold February he was dumped in the culvert and you left him. Job done,” he added. “You thought he had died and that is what you intended.”

Brownlie and Lindsay, both of Longsight, Manchester, admitted attempted murder and robbery on the day of their scheduled trial last month. They also received concurrent six-year sentences for the robbery.

Mongan, also of Longsight, pleaded guilty at the earlier hearing to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

She received a concurrent four-year term for robbery which she too admitted.