Explicit Pictures Sparked Beating
14.03.2010, 05:47
A MAN who took explicit pictures of a teenage girl was brutally attacked with a cleaver by her jealous boyfriend.
Szálláshelyek Londonban
Anthony Crossan and his friend Terence Sterritt launched a violent assault on the photographer after his girlfriend decided she wanted the pictures back.
Jennifer Campbell, 18, had agreed to pose for adult shots in exchange for Ł70 and a Marks and Spencer voucher.
But after having her picture taken by Mark Thatcher at his Layton home and in the Lake District, she started to worry they would end up on the internet and wanted them back.
Her boyfriend Crossan, 35, of Hornby Road, and Sterritt, 39, of Devonshire Road, went round to Mr Thatcher's home, with a cleaver and a knife.
They ordered him into the bedroom where they punched and hit him with the cleaver handle.
Exploited
He was then forced to crawl downstairs to find his money and credit cards.
The pair then tried to tie him to a chair before leaving in Mr Thatcher's VW Polo car.
One stab wound in Mr Thatcher's back was so big muscle could be seen.
Yesterday both men were jailed for four years and 10 months at Preston Crown Court after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary, unlawful wounding and taking a car without consent.
Campbell, formerly of Hornby Road, was given a three-year community order for theft and conspiracy to commit actual bodily harm.
She told police she thought she had been exploited and had not been paid enough for the pictures.
Stuart Denney, defending Crossan, said his client had taken the law into his own hands.
He said he worked in the catering trade and that the cleaver was a work tool.
He added: "The idea was to scare Mr Thatcher, to inconvenience him and to remove the photographs and CD Roms.
"But it was quite clear at the scene things got a little out of hand.
"The defendant thought his nearest and dearest had suffered at a man's hands."
The court heard both men had been drinking heavily before the attack and that all three regretted what they had
done.
Janet Ironfield, defending Campbell, said the teenager had been exploited and abused.
She said: "She was acting in a heightened emotional state at the time, seeking to take a stand, but went about it in a wholly wrong way."
Sentencing Crossan and Sterritt, Judge Pamela Badley, said: "You battered this man in order to effect revenge."
Crossan was also given a three-year driving ban after admitting driving while disqualified and drink driving.