Feb 22 - Man Jailed For Flat Bastion Road Attack
A 21-year-old local man has been jailed for four years and six months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.
In August last year, Christopher Nuñez, of Varyl Begg Estate, together with two friends, went to Morrison’s supermarket to purchase three large kitchen knives.
Prosecutor Mark Clive Zammitt said they went to Sir William Jackson Grove in search of the victim in his friend’s house before heading up to his residence in Flat Bastion Road. It is claimed that they were going to try and retrieve some £800 owed to the three of them.
The three men gained entry into the victim’s flat, woke him up and proceeded to attack him. The victim was left with serious injuries, including three wounds to his left leg and a laceration to the side of his head, and lost a lot of blood following the attack.
Defence counsel Patrick Canessa said his client discarded his knife behind the storage bins outside the victim’s home before entering with the other two, and had taken responsibility for the laceration to the side of the head which he caused with a cider glass. He said his client had dealt a single blow, but had shown remorse and has been remanded in custody since the incident.
Puisne Judge Karen Ramagge Prescott refused to accept Nuñez was a subordinate in this trio, adding that there were a number of aggravating factors working against him. She said that although he discarded the knife, he aimed to cause serious harm and caused the gash to the victim’s head. The defendant was also said to have two previous convictions for carrying a bladed article.
Mrs Justice Ramagge Prescott said that although the defendant had dealt a single blow, it formed part of substantial violence where glass and knives were used on the victim.
Nuñez was sentenced to seven years in prison, but this was reduced to four years and six months after entering an early guilty plea, with time served in remand taken into consideration.
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