Kendal man spared prison aftter unprovoked attack (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Kendal man spared prison aftter unprovoked attack

4:43pm Monday 6th September 2010 in

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A TEENAGE supermarket worker who left a man with a fractured pelvis after an incident in Kendal has been spared a prison sentence so he can join the Army.

Callum Ashley Wilkinson, 18, admitted the unprovoked attack on Mark Dawson on May 2.

But, he was given a suspended sentence after his barrister Julian Goode told Carlisle Crown Court that people were never allowed into the armed forces if they had spent time in prison.

Wilkinson, of Captain French Lane, Kendal, had pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Prosecuting counsel Brendan Burke told the court that Mr Dawson, 41, was walking near a monument in Beast Banks, Kendal, with two friends when they encountered a gang of about 12 young people.

Suddenly, he said, ‘a hand came from nowhere’ and removed Mr Dawson’s glasses, causing him to panic since he could see no more than four feet without them.

Mr Dawson fell down the monument’s steps while trying to get away and was repeatedly kicked and punched as he lay curled up trying to protect himself, with his back against a wall.

He was left in ‘terrible pain’, struggling for breath and with blood pouring from his mouth, the court heard.

Mr Dawson spent four days in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, where he was treated for a fractured pelvis, a bruised face and abrasions all over his body.

Wilkinson was also treated in hospital after punching Mr Dawson so hard that he broke his hand, Mr Burke said.

In mitigation, Mr Goode said Wilkinson was ‘very remorseful’ and had himself described the incident as ‘disgraceful’.

Wilkinson was given a nine-month sentence in a Young Offenders’ Institution, which was suspended for a year, and put under the supervision of probation officers for 12 months.

He was also ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid community work and ordered to pay Mr Dawson £1,000 compensation, with £200 costs.

The court heard that a 16-year-old boy who, like Wilkinson, admitted being involved in the attack, had been made the subject of a 12-month referral order and made to pay £2,000 compensation in the Youth Court.