30/08/2011
A man has been sent to prison for 12 years, after beating a 21 year old over a £40 drug debt, despite some of the money being handed over and a friend promising to go and get the rest of the cash to settle the dispute. The victim now has permanent brain damage.
John Black aged 20 pleaded guilty to attacking 21 year old John Gallagher with a baseball bat, as well as brandishing weapons and demanding money.
The court heard how Black had been out at a nightclub but at about 3am was offered a lift by an acquaintance whom he asked to take him to Cleland to collect some money he was owed before going home.
On reaching Cleland, Black spotted the man he was looking for and asked the driver to stop the car. Weapons were dished out to the passengers in the car and Black approached John Gallagher to demand he paid up for his drug debt.
Another man, Derek McFadyen, offered to pay John Gallagher's debt and handed over £20 to Black promising to go and get some more money and return. After McFadyen disappeared, Black attacked Mr Gallagher with a wooden bat, hitting him around the head and knocking him to the ground. As Mr Gallagher tried to get up, Black landed a second blow on his head.
Mr Gallagher sustained serious injuries in the attack and has been left with severe mental and physical disabilities as a result and is still a resident in the Murdostoun Castle Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit where he moved last September, after the assault in June.
Judge Michael O'Grady QC described the attack as 'appalling' and Black's behaviour as 'cowardly,' leaving Mr Gallagher with 'a broken body and a broken mind.' After sending Black to jail for 12 years, his two accomplices, Nicholas Naughton and Connor Hynds, were sentenced to 300 hours community service.
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