Blackpool man jailed after hammer attack leaves victim in hospital for nine days

Gareth Moore, 26, of Kent Road, Blackpool, has been jailed for 32 months after Preston Crown Court heard he left his victim with three head injuries, rib injuries and a broken leg outside an address in Blackpool.

The victim had to have 300ml of blood drained from his chest during a nine day hospital stay, and spent seven months in a plaster cast for the two leg fractures, Preston Crown Court was told.

The incident happened when the man approached Moore and threatened him with the mallet type tool, accusing him of being too noisy - despite it later emerging Moore had not been the source of the ‘noise.’

Moore then grabbed the weapon and used it to launch a nasty attack on the victim - which a judge said went “grossly” beyond self defence.

After being struck repeatedly, he tried to stand but couldn’t due to his leg being broken in two places.

He toppled down a stairwell and over a lower wall at the bottom.

Moore did call an ambulance to assist him, but later posted a “distasteful” picture on Facebook linked to the incident, the court was told.

Recorder Simon Earlam rejected Moore’s claims his victim’s serious head injuries had been caused when he struck his head and fell over a wall after plunging down the stairwell.

Jailing him, he said: “It seems to me that the evidence is strongly corroborated by the evidence of an expert witness indicating the injuries he sustained were as the result of a hammer, which you used to deliver forceful blows.

He said a witness had seen him deliver “five or six blows”.

He added: “It seems to me when you crossed the line from self defence to unlawful violence you did so in a sustained attack, in anger, to teach him a lesson.

“When the mist lifted you realised how badly injured he was and you had the decency to call the ambulance to come and assist him, despite the fact you posted briefly a rather distasteful photograph that you did. It gives me no pleasure to do so, but it’s my duty to impose an immediate term of imprisonment.”