15 years for axe-wielding robbers in terrifying attack on Hull teenager

THREE robbers who armed themselves with a doubled-bladed axe while high on drugs and subjected a teenager to a terrifying ordeal have been jailed for a total of 15 years.

Despite being arrested and charged with robbery, one of the men, Lewis Patterson, 22, went on to assault another victim after being released on bail.

He was then bailed a second time and went on the run.

Now Patterson – seen here posing for a photograph with the axe used in the first offence – has finally been jailed.

Hull Crown Court heard Patterson, along with Christopher Matthews, 30, and Louis Coult, 23, took M-Cat on September 20, last year and hid in an alleyway in Bransholme.

When they spotted a 17-year-old boy walking past the gang confronted him, struck him in the face and put the axe to his neck. One of the thugs swung the axe, only narrowly missing the boy's head.

It became embedded in a fence and Coult pulled it free, held it to their victim's face and demanded he empty his pockets.

The boy handed over his wallet, which contained £10, before he was frog-marched to a cashpoint and withdrew £250.

Prosecutor Jharna Jobes said: "The victim said he considered trying to run but had nowhere to go and was frightened of what they would do to him if he failed to get away."

It took the police two weeks to catch all the gang.

Jailing each of the offenders for five years, Judge Michael Mettyear told them: "This was absolutely disgraceful behaviour.

"You all disguised your faces. You picked on a 17-year-old.

"He was struck and then threatened with this double-bladed axe. He must have been terrified.

"There are aggravating features here – there was more than one offender, the degree of detention of your victim, he was taken off, you wore disguises and your victim was vulnerable."

Matthews, of Terry Street, off Beverley Road, Hull, Coult, of Ladyside Close, Bransholme, and Patterson, of Weymouth Close, Bransholme, all pleaded guilty to robbery.

Coult's solicitor Paul Norton said: "It was the first time he had taken M-Cat. The effects of that drug are now becoming all too apparent.

"He has never committed offences of this seriousness before.

"He is remorseful and appreciates what a terrifying ordeal it must have been."

Addressing Patterson in particular, the judge said: "You committed a nasty assault occasioning actual bodily harm when you still had this robbery hanging over your head. You went out and committed this other offence in drunken night-time violence."

Patterson's barrister Richard Thompson said his client was remorseful and was only on the run for a short period of time.

He told the court: "There was no gratuitous violence used towards the complainant.

"He was simply the victim of a theft of money stolen by people under the influence of drugs."

Judge Mettyear hit out at the police, CPS and magistrates for allowing all three men to be bailed for such a serious offence when they first appeared at court.

After their release, Patterson punched a man outside the Moderation Bar, in Hull city centre, on January 29.

His victim had to be taken to hospital by ambulance and received three butterfly stitches to his eyebrow, suffered three cuts to his cheekbone and had swelling and bruising to his body.

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