A man has been jailed for what a judge called a “barbaric, sick and depraved” attack on a homeless man as he lay unconscious on the ground.
The victim was kicked, punched and stamped on in the unprovoked attack in Scarborough on 3 July last year by Christian Watson and Fallon Johnston, York Crown Court was told.
Sentencing Watson, 24, from Kirstall in Leeds, and Johnston, 20, from Blackpool, Judge Sean Morris said the victim, from Scarborough, was “lucky to be alive” after the injuries they had inflicted.
Watson was jailed for four years and eight months, while Johnston was given a three-year community order.
Prosecutor Catherine Duffy had told the court that Watson and Johnston, who were engaged at the time, had been sitting beside the victim outside a coffee shop at St Nicholas Cliff at about 01:30 BST on the day of the attack.
Without warning, Johnston got up and kicked him in the “torso or face”, she explained.
“Johnston continued to kick him while he was on the floor, before Watson grabbed him by the head and pushed his head down onto the floor,” Duffy said.
There then followed an all-out assault on the man where Johnston “kicked the victim eight times”.
Watson then stamped on the prone victim and kicked him in the face before taking a “run-up” and kicking the man in a “soccer kick”, the prosecutor said.
He then kicked him “several times” more to the face and body and stamped on him.
