A man has been jailed for over five years for a horrific street attack on a pensioner who needed emergency hospital treatment after being beaten “black and blue” and suffering a bleed on the brain and multiple broken bones.
James Raynor, 27, pounced on the 80-year-old as the man walked his dog in Osbaldwick, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Soheil Khan said the terrified victim was repeatedly kicked, punched and stamped on after being knocked to the ground during the ferocious attack in Osbaldwick Lane on 29 January.
Just before the random attack, Raynor had been punching and kicking a bus stop, prompting the named victim to cross the road to avoid him. However, Raynor followed him and began “punching and kicking him repeatedly, even whilst on the ground”.
A female witness in a nearby house filmed the horrifying scenes on her phone and went to help the hapless victim who was lying on the pavement and bleeding heavily from wounds to his head.
A heroic van driver jumped out of his vehicle after spotting the attack and chased down Raynor, detaining him until police arrived to arrest him.
An ambulance arrived shortly afterwards and took the victim to York Hospital where he was treated for multiple injuries including a brain haemorrhage, a fractured eye socket, a broken nose, a fractured cheekbone, a broken jaw and a fractured and dislocated shoulder. He also suffered two broken ribs.
He spent ten days in hospital and was still suffering from the effects of the attack including restricted mobility, ongoing pain and memory problems.
‘Ghastly impact’
Mr Khan said that prior to the attack, Raynor was at his mother’s home to meet a social worker.
Raynor told his mother “something heart-warming” but, when she responded with a kindly wink, this “caused him to become angry and storm out of the house”.
Witnesses said they saw Raynor kick the victim “at least 10 times” and stamp on the victim at least three times. The helpless victim tried in vain to protect himself by “putting his hands out” but the blows continued to rain down as his dog “wandered around with its lead dangling”.
“Raynor ran away, chased by (the named van driver) who caught up with him,” said Mr Khan.
Two other men helped keep watch on Raynor near the scene until police arrived.
Raynor, of Cemetery Road, York, told an officer: “I feel bad now. I feel bad for him ‘cos he’s an old man. I shouldn’t have done that sxxx, you know what I mean? I hear voices that tell me to do stuff, like harm myself and harm others.”
The victim later told police that during the attack he had “literally folded myself up…on the ground, but Raynor “just continued to punch and kick”.
Raynor was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent and admitted the offence. He appeared for sentence via video link yesterday (Monday) after being remanded in custody.
In a statement read out by the prosecution, the victim spoke of the “ghastly impact” that the unprovoked attack had had on him and his wife.
He said he could barely remember his first few days in a hospital isolation ward “other than I was black and blue”.
He had since had follow-up appointments with neurologists but “I still don’t have full movement in my right arm”. He had suffered from broken sleep and now rarely left the house for fear of being attacked again.
“Before this, I had no fear of going anywhere, really,” he added.
“My wife says my memory is not the same since. She says I take longer to answer questions and there’s a confused look on my face.”
Mental health problems
Kevin Blount, Raynor’s solicitor advocate, said his client’s family had been trying to get him help for anger issues and mental-health problems.
He said Raynor had “extremely confused, paranoid thinking”. He cited the bizarre reaction to his mother’s innocuous wink and Raynor’s belief that messages were being sent to him through “TV ads and the like”, urging him to harm people.
Raynor had five previous convictions for violent, sexual and public-order offences. In 2015, he received a suspended prison sentence for battery after throwing a stepladder at his father before threatening members of the public in the street with a pole.
In that same year, he was convicted of a terrifying, “premeditated” attack on a woman in which he put a pillow over her face after “researching ways of putting people to sleep”.
In 2016, he was convicted of battery following another random street attack in Osbaldwick. The following year, he was jailed for two years and eight months after pouncing on a woman riding her bike in Town Lane, York, where he grabbed her from behind and sexually assaulted her.
Judge Simon Hickey said the ferocious assault on the elderly man in Osbaldwick was the latest in a series of attacks on “complete strangers” which marked Raynor out as a dangerous offender.
He told Raynor: “You unleashed what can only be described as an unprovoked and sustained attack on a vulnerable, 80-year-old man.”
Raynor was jailed for five years and four months. The judge told him he would have to serve two-thirds of that sentence behind bars before becoming eligible for parole. As a dangerous offender, Raynor will also have to serve an extended four-year period on prison licence upon his eventual release from jail.