A TEENAGER who unleashed ‘sickening’ and ‘gratuitous’ violence on a student to steal his mobile phone has been locked up for eight years.

Sheikh Juned and another man unleashed an attack so brutal on Burnley UCLan student Michael Conway that he was unconscious inside 20 seconds.

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Burnley Crown Court heard the attack, in the M65 underpass at Gannow Top, left Mr Conway struggling to deal with the physical and emotional after-effects.

Mr Conway required a nine-hour operation on injuries to his face, had five metal plates inserted, has lost around 14 teeth either as part of the attack and had suffered a fractured eye socket, cheekbone and jaw.

The court was told that the attack had been so violent that the ‘zig-zag marks’ from the bottom of one of the assailant’s trainers were visible on Mr Conway’s face and head, and police who arrived at the scene said he was ‘unrecognisable’.

Geoff Whelan, prosecuting, said Mr Conway’s victim impact statement had painted a picture of the ‘emotional, physical and social’ injuries he had sustained.

He said: “Mr Conway will have scarring for the remainder of his life as a result of the attack, and it will be a permanent reminder of what he describes as the ‘worst day of my life’.

“After leaving hospital he was diagnosed with depression and at one stage considered ending his life.

“He has told his mum that he wishes he had never gone into the subway on that day.”

Mr Conway is still suffering with sleeplessness and anxiety following the attack and he struggles to be out on his own.

Mr Whelan said: “This incident has destroyed his university course. He missed so much of his course that he couldn’t recover it to graduate and he had to drop out of university.

“He plans to start again but that will have a significant effect on the cost of his education.

“He feels he cannot forgive his attacker as he has had years of his life taken away from him.”

Mr Conway had his mobile phone, wallet, passport and bank cards taken during the attack on March 28, 2013, which stopped when two passers-by intervened.

Juned, 18, of Higher Reedley Road, Reedley, made two attempts to sell on the student’s mobile phone to a friend. But police managed to trace the device, after a new SIM card was inserted by the unwitting customer, and Juned was later arrested.

He denied all knowledge of the robbery, even though Mr Conway picked him out twice, via a video identification parade, as one of the culprits.

Since being found guilty at the end of a three-day trial Juned has admitted to his part in the attack.

William Staunton, defending, said Juned had struggled to cope with the suicide of his sister in 2013 after she was removed from the family home due to violence.

He has previous convictions as a young offender for burglary, where two children were threatened with an imitation firearm, a robbery and attempted robbery charge, arson and common assault against his mum.

Recorder Tania Griffiths QC, sentencing Juned, said: “This was an unprovoked attack of gratuitous violence on a level that was sickening.

“This was very clearly a planned attack against somebody who was vulnerable as he was isolated in the subway.”

Having been found guilty of robbery and section 18 assault Juned was sentenced to eight years detention for both offences, with the sentences running alongside each other.