Young man jailed for hitting baby and other violent offences

Samuel Robbins, 21, of Fallow Hill, Leamington, had denied a charge of cruelty to a child, but was found guilty by a jury at Warwick Crown Court following a trial last month.

Robbins, who had pleaded guilty to a separate charge of assault and was also convicted of robbery following an earlier trial, was jailed for a total of two-and-a-half years.

With him in the dock was his brother Reece Robbins, 20, also of Fallow Hill, and Ashley Owen, 21, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, who were both jailed for 18 months for their parts in the robbery, of which they were also found guilty.

And Jamie Debney, 22, of Willes Road, Leamington, and Craig Herlihy, 20, of Tachbrook Road, Leamington, were sentenced to six months in jail suspended for 12 months for the assault charge, which they had admitted.

A jury had heard that in May 2010 Robbins, who was living in Warwick at the time, was looking after a six-month-old baby while its mother, who also lived in Warwick, was out.

Prosecutor Matthew Barnes said Robbins ‘assaulted him in temper, causing very unpleasant facial injuries’ including severe bruising to both cheeks and a torn upper frenulum – the membrane between the upper lip and the gum.

It came to light when Robbins called 999 saying that the baby was bleeding from his mouth, his eyes were rolling and he was floppy.

But Robbins, who told an emergency service operator he had been asleep with the baby and had moved and caught him in the face accidentally, was reluctant to take him to hospital.

When he finally did so, the boy was seen by consultant paediatrician Dr John Davies who was later told of Robbins’s explanation of how the injuries were caused.

And Mr Barnes told the jury: “The doctor’s opinion is that that was unlikely because the bruising to both cheeks was bilateral, yet there was no injury to the nose.

“Following an adjournment for all the defendants to appear in court together, Mr Barnes said that in March 2011, while Robbins was on bail, he, Debney and Herlihy were involved in an assault on a young man while he was asleep in bed.

They had been told their victim had sexually assaulted a girl one of them knew, and they decided to take the law into their own hands.

The three of them went to the address in Leamington where the young man was living at the time, and went into his room, where he was asleep in bed, and attacked him.

Then in April last year Robbins, his brother and Owen met Christopher Howes and a friend of his in a 24-hour Tesco store, where they were all buying drink, and invited them back to a flat.

But in a communal corridor at the flats, the three of them decided to rob Mr Howes and his friend, who were unfamiliar with the area, when they left, and lured them to ‘a remote and dark cut-through’ nearby.

Realising something was not right, the two friends began to run, but were chased by the Robbins brothers and Owen, and they caught Mr Howes and kicked and punched him before demanding his wallet from which they took £150.

Graeme Simpson, for Robbins, said he had lost his job as a sales assistant in 2009, and not long after that his grandfather died, and he began drinking excessively, as he was doing at the time of all of the offences.

Mr Simpson added that Robbins now had a new partner who does not drink and is a good influence on him, and he has not had a drink since New Year’s Eve.

The robbery was said to have been ‘out of character’ for Owen; and barristers for Debney and Herlihy submitted that their sentences could be suspended.

Robbins was given six months for child cruelty, six months for assault and 18 months for robbery, all consecutive.

Recorder Marcus Tregilgas-Davey told him: “I first have to sentence you for cruelty. I have seen the photographs, and they are distressing. He was defenceless in your sole charge and you did not have the sense of duty or moral conviction to plead guilty.

“In my view this was an isolated incident, but one where the force used caused injuries akin to what one would classify as an assault occasioning actual bodily harm.”

And of the robbery, Recorder Tregilgas-Davey added: “You lured them to a remote and dark cut-through.

“They were vulnerable because they were very drunk, and they were vulnerable because they were on your patch.”