Thug jailed for fracturing skull (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Thug jailed for fracturing skull

4:48pm Wednesday 21st February 2007 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter

Thug Mark Mason has been jailed for two years after he left a man with serious head injuries.

The 43-year-old punched victim Kevin Dixon just once but left him with a fractured skull and internal bleeding.

As a result Mr Dixon, 43, was detained in hospital for five and a half weeks and still suffers problems as a result of the blow.

Mason had denied a charge of causing grievous bodily harm but was found guilty by a jury following a trial at Swindon Crown Court.

The court was told how Mr Dixon had gone to see his on off girlfriend at her home in East Street, Railway Village, on the evening of Tuesday, August 30 2005.

Because of recent arguments she was upset because he had been to the pub and she refused to let him in.

However she went round the corner to speak to him and their voices became raised as Mr Dixon, of Emlyn Square, tried to explain what had happened and she told him she had had enough.

A number of people came out to see what was happening including Mason, who decided to get involved in the argument.

Mason then walked towards Mr Dixon and punched him in the face, knocking him out and leaving him lying prone on the pavement.

At first onlookers thought he was dead but he was put in the recovery position and an ambulance was called.

When he was questioned a few days later Mason, of Oxford Street, accepted landing the blow but insisted he was acting in lawful self defence.

But a jury of six men and six women rejected his claim and found him guilty of the offence.

The court heard that Mason had a long history of offending including a wounding from 1989 and conspiracy to rob and possessing a firearm in 1995, for which he was jailed for nine years.

Adam Gadd, defending, said that the starting point for a one-punch manslaughter was one year if the defendant pleaded guilty.

He said his client and the public at large would benefit more from his client having a community order than a short prison term.

But Judge Douglas Field told him the matter was so serious that he had to pass a jail term.

He said: "I accept that you delivered only one punch but I have to take into account the grave consequences for the victim.

"He suffered frontal and skull fractures which bled to the right front and temporal lobes and his life has been very adversely affected by his injuries."