Burnley gunshot victim jailed for six years for savage attack on his brother (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Burnley gunshot victim jailed for six years for savage attack on his brother

11:38am Tuesday 11th September 2012 in News

A GUNSHOT victim left his brother fearing he would be killed after a savage metal baseball bat attack prompted by a row over a dog.

John Hoban, 53, has been jailed for six years after repeatedly hitting his younger brother Stephen, 51, who is also his carer, with the weapon in Burnley. He suffered a fractured jaw and cheekbone as well as eye and shoulder injuries.

The incident was described as an ‘irrational and violent over-reaction’ to his brother, who he lived with in a flat in Padiham Road, Burnley.

Mr Hoban had cared for his older brother John after he was shot at point-blank range in a Blackburn back alley in 2003.

Judge Beverley Lunt, said there was no question that he had suffered real physical and psychological harm as a result of the incident in 2003, in which he was an innocent victim.

She said it might partly explain his behaviour, but couldn't excuse it and the judged ruled the defendant was a ‘dangerous offender’.

She said: “You have now caused your own brother physical and psychological harm and you are going to have to live with that.”

After the attack on his younger brother, on April 25, Stephen was left needing 32 stitches and a metal plate had to be inserted into his cheekbone.

Prosecutor Sarah Statham said the brothers had been drinking in the Bee's Knees pub, in Hammerton Street, when they began arguing about John's children and a dog.

John punched Stephen in the face, knocking him to the floor and bursting his lip. The victim left and started to walk home, before he received a phone call from the defendant on the way and words were exchanged.

There was a further confrontation at the flat the brothers shared, with John pushing Stephen onto a sofa. The victim called the police and was telling them he had been attacked when John picked up a baseball bat and hit his brother on the shoulder, before delivering three or four hard blows to the head and face.

Hoban, who is originally from Fosse Close, Blackamoor, Blackburn, and has lived in Rishton, then went outside and waited until the police arrived.

When officers arrived the older brother told them: "You will need to get an ambulance. I don't know why I have done it."

Inside they found Stephen badly injured, with his head and face covered in blood and blood splattered all over the ceiling. He had a deep, gaping wound to his head, a gash over the front of his head and when he was taken to hospital was found to have suffered a smashed left jaw and cheekbone and eye and shoulder injuries.

The defendant had offered himself up for arrest by the police, presenting his hands to be cuffed and said: “I have lost it and hit my brother over the head with a metal baseball bat. I don't know why, but I lost it.”

Miss Statham said the victim was left permanently scarred and because of the head wound he later developed an infection and had to have further surgical treatment.

Hoban had 19 offences on his record, including three convictions for GBH and had been to jail in the past.

Peter Turner, for Hoban, said he still had a very substantial number of lead pellets in his chest, around his heart, from when he was shot in 2003.

After that incident his attacker Mark Elliott was jailed for life for attempted murder, but the unexplained incident left Hoban with ongoing physical and psychological problems, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Several pellets from Elliott's gun remained lodged in and around Hoban's heart following the shooting off Northgate, the court heard.

Mr Turner said: “The defendant is distraught at the thought he has lost contact with his brother and he's distraught at the thought his brother has suffered the injuries that he has.”