A 31-YEAR-OLD man who carried out a “brutal, callous and prolonged assault” on a friend and colleague, which left the victim with serious multiple injuries – including a collapsed lung – has been sent to prison for three years.
Mark Benjamin Blackburn also choked the victim until he began to lose consciousness at the end of a sustained period of abuse, which had taken place along various streets in town, the Royal Square and at the victim’s own home.
Blackburn had repeatedly punched, slapped and pushed the victim, who was a lot smaller in build to him, leaving him with lasting physical and psychological injuries.
In addition to this sustained and serious grave and criminal assault, which took place last July, Blackburn’s sentencing hearing in the Royal Court on Friday covered three common assaults, committed on three teenage victims at Liberation Station last April.
He had been on police bail for these attacks when he committed the second assault.
Blackburn was heavily intoxicated through alcohol and drugs on both occasions.
Setting out the details of the more serious assault, Crown Advocate Lauren Taylor said that the male victim had invited Blackburn to stay at his house because the latter had fallen out with his girlfriend and had nowhere to stay.
They had gone out for some drinks and food but had been refused entry into a town bar. Angered by this, Blackburn began assaulting the victim: pushing him to the floor, pinning him against a tree in the Royal Square, slapping him in the face, punching him multiple times, and dragging and pushing him along.
Advocate Taylor said that the assaults had continued once the pair returned to the victim’s flat, which included punching him with such force that he fell to the floor and hit his head on the doorstep, leaving it heavily stained with the victim’s blood.
She added: “The defendant [Blackburn] then entered the bathroom and punched the victim in the centre of his stomach. The victim recalls that this punch was delivered with such severity that it was the hardest he had ever been punched. He could not breath. The defendant then began to choke him, and the victim began to lose consciousness. The defendant let go and the victim dropped to the floor beside the toilet.”
Blackburn continued to assault the victim, even while the latter was lying on his bed, until the police arrived. Blackburn also stole silver collectable coins from the flat.
Advocate Taylor described the assault as “brutal, callous and prolonged” and called for a prison sentence of two years and nine months.
In the earlier assaults at Liberation Station, Blackburn had attacked three teenage boys after they had all got off a bus. The victims had initially thought their conversation with Blackburn had been amusing but they then felt uncomfortable as he became more unpredictable and aggressive.
As well as grabbing and pinning one teenager against a wall, Blackburn had punched another twice, boasting to the teens that he was “a bad man”.
Advocate Allana Binnie, defending, said that Blackburn was ashamed, shocked and embarrassed by his actions, and was committed to engaging with organisations to address his long-standing alcohol and substance abuse, and difficult past.
She said that he wanted to attend a 12-week residential course at Silkworth Lodge, which the charity had recognised as “the perfect environment” for Blackburn to make positive changes to his life.
Referring to positive engagement with prison and other services during Blackburn’s five months on remand, Advocate Binnie said that Blackburn had been grateful for his time in custody because it had given him an opportunity to reflect and make conscious decisions.
He was aware of the impact of the assaults on his victims, she added, calling for a non-custodial sentence after the Silkworth course, which included probation and community service orders.
Although acknowledging Blackburn’s positive steps in prison and favourable references from family and the chaplain at HMP La Moye, the Bailiff, Robert MacRae, said that a custodial sentence was inevitable.
“This was a prolonged and humiliating grave and criminal assault on someone regarded as a friend, who was left with a catalogue of injuries,” he said, adding that violence on the streets of St Helier would not be tolerated by the court.
As well as sending Blackburn to prison, the court made an exclusion order and a restraining order, preventing him making contact with the victim for five years.
The Bailiff was sitting with Jurats Kim Averty and Michael Powell.
