HAMMER ATTACK: Man who bludgeoned 17-year-old with hammer during sex branded '˜violent monster' by judge

James Hemming had arranged to meet the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, for sex in Shearer Road, on April 11 this year.

But screams rang out when the 29-year-old, of Cross Street, Portsea, bludgeoned her head, back and limbs with a 16oz claw hammer.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard Hemming was having sex with the teenager after paying her £160 when he attacked.

Sentencing, Judge Sarah Munro QC said: ‘There’s nothing in your past to explain this transformation from the norm to what can only be described as a violent monster.’

She added: ‘There came a stage when you were having sex.

‘You the described that you felt strange, though you were stone-cold sober and you picked up the hammer from the window sill and hit her hard on the back of the head with it.

‘When she screamed you hit her a number of times, you did that to knock her out to stop her screaming.’

In a victim statement read to the court, the girl, now 18, said: ‘I told everyone that I didn’t want to know what happened to me.

‘I couldn’t remember and didn’t want to.

‘I’m a real fighter, I still can’t believe I got myself ready and home in just under two months.

‘The hospital said it would be six.

‘Over time things changed and I found myself wanting and deserving to know.

‘I feel like to recover properly I need to know.

‘I find myself Googling every last link since the attack and even been looking at James’s Facebook page.

‘I can’t believe he had the audacity to change his profile picture to him and girlfriend after he attacked me.

‘This has messed with my head.’

The girl added Hemming does not look like ‘the kind of person who would repeatedly hit a 17-year-old with a hammer and make her life hell.’

She added: ‘Why would anyone do that?’

Reading the statement prosecutor Kerry Maylin added: ‘All I want is to ask James “why did you do this to me and what made you think you’re got to nearly kill a child who has her whole life ahead of her and make it a misery?”.’

The girl continued: ‘I hope he spends his time in prison knowing exactly what he’s done to me and all those around me.’

She added: ‘I hope he gets everything he deserves and his life falls apart around him.’

Nigel Lickley QC, defending, said: ‘The defendant doesn’t know why he did what he did and cannot offer any explanation.

‘Whether, as the author of the pre-sentence report suggest, there will be insight, one can only speculate.’

Hemming admitted wounding with intent at an earlier hearing.

More to come