Thug escapes jail over sentence breach (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Thug escapes jail over sentence breach

9:33am Wednesday 5th September 2007 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter

A young thug who twice failed to turn up for probation appointments while on a suspended sentence has escaped being jailed.

Aaron Pearson faced the prospect of the one-year prison sentence being activated after he was breached by the probation service.

But instead the 20-year-old has been told he will have to do a further two days of community service.

Pearson and friend Jamie Ferris, 19, were told by a judge in January that it was "with some misgivings" that they were not being sent straight to jail for the attack.

They admitted actual bodily harm after going to a former friend's house armed with sticks which had nails sticking out of them and setting upon him.

Both men were put on one-year jail terms suspended for 18 months and told to do 250 hours of community service, observe curfews for four months and pay £600 compensation.

Pearson, who the court heard had been a heavy user of ecstasy since he was 15 years old, was also put on a six-month drug rehabilitation order.

Stuart Leach, for the probation service, said while Pearson had completed the curfew and drugs rehabilitation he twice failed to keep two probation appointments in June.

Pearson, of The Bramptons, West Swindon, admitted being in breach of a suspended sentence order. The court heard he had shown a high level of remorse for the offending and stopped drinking and taking ecstasy.

Rob Ross, defending, said: "He has complied in every other way with the order. He has now completed all but 38 hours of the 250 imposed."

The court was told that current legislation meant that if an order was breached the judge was obliged to make it more onerous, meaning a fine could not be imposed.

Adding 14 hours of community service Recorder Duncan Adam said: "I tried to make you pay for the thousands of pounds that your failure to attend on those days in June involved the state.

"And I mean thousands of pounds. But it seems I can't make you pay for this but I am going to add on as you heard two days' work.

"Please do not miss any further appointments."

Pearson and Ferris, of Townend Road, Faringdon, had been out drinking before the assault in September last year.

They went to the home of Jamie Solari on Oxford Street, Swindon, and set about him using sticks with nails sticking out, leaving him with cuts and bruises.

Both admitted actual bodily harm and Ferris also admitted criminal damage to a mirror in the property.

The youths said they had once been friends with the victim but fell out over his drug use and attacked him because they had been told he smoked heroin in front of the pregnant 15-year-old sister of a friend.

Ferris has twice been back before the court for failing to comply with the conditions of the suspended sentence but kept his liberty on both occasions.