Two Haverfordwest men have been jailed by Swansea Crown Court for stamping and repeatedly kicking a man’s head until he lost consciousness.
Jedd Hitchings, 25, and Gareth Roberts, 32, turned on Graham Nicholas soon after he had returned to his flat on the Three Meadows estate in Haverfordwest.
Witnesses described how they saw Mr Hitchings knock Mr Nicholas to the ground before both he and Roberts began stamping and kicking his head with force. Their violent assault continued for around 30 seconds.
“It looked as if he had been hit with a cricket bat,” his friend, Mr Wayne John, told police officers following the attack.
“His nose was splattered all over his face. It breaks my heart to think what they did to him. He was a good man and didn’t deserve any of this.”
The attack took place on the evening of December 14, 2021, after Mr Nicholas walked home to Three Meadows, accompanied by Mr John with whom he’d spent the afternoon drinking alcohol. Mr Nicholas carried on walking towards his flat while Mr John held back with his dog.
When Mr Nicholas reached his flat, he heard a loud noise coming from the flat above. As he requested the occupier to turn the noise down, a group of people proceeded to walk down the stairs.
“The next thing he remembers was being helped into a police van after the assault,” the counsel for the Crown told Swansea Crown Court this morning (Friday).
When his friend, Mr John, reached Three Meadows he saw Mr Nicholas being punched to the head by Hitchings, causing him to fall to the floor.
A neighbour became aware of the incident after being disturbed by men ‘shouting aggressively’.
“I looked out and saw two men kicking and stamping on a man in the driveway,” confirmed the neighbour in a police statement. “This carried on for around 30 seconds with some force and Mr Nicholas was bleeding heavily from the face.”
When police arrived and discovered the extent of Mr Nicholas’ injuries, they called an ambulance but, upon being told that it would take a considerable length of time to arrive, they decided to drive the complainant to the hospital in their van.
His injuries included a broken nose and lacerations to the back of his head, left nostril and upper lip.
At the time of the attack Mr Nicholas was recovering from a heart attack which he had suffered five months previously.
“I can’t breathe through my left nostril and I now have a deformity to my top lip which can’t be rectified,” he said in a victim impact statement.
“I’m going to have to live with this for the rest of my life. My injuries have affected my appearance and this has a knock-on effect on my confidence.
“All I did that night was knock on my neighbour’s door to ask her to keep the noise down.
“Life is never going to be the same for me again.”
Both defendants, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful wounding while Hitchings admitted an additional charge of perverting the course of justice.
This was in relation to him claiming that the attack had been committed by Mr Wayne John. As a result, Mr John was arrested and kept in police custody for 22 hours,
“I was worried and stressed,” Mr John said in a victim impact statement.
“My daughter was due to get married a few days later, and I didn’t know if I would be able to attend.”
Jedd Hitchings, was sentenced to 27 months in prison while Roberts will serve 19 months in custody.
Half of these sentences will be served in prison with the remainder spent on licence.
Both defendants were placed on a five year restraining order preventing them from approaching or contacting Mr Graham Nicholas.
