Portsmouth hammer attack accused spared jail after CPS accepts he punched house party victim

Dad-of-one Thomas Robertson, 33, was told would not be sent to prison having admitted causing grievous bodily harm.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard victim Arindam Sarkar told police he went to a pub on January 24 last year before going to a 24-hour store where he was invited by others to a party.

When it was just him, a woman and the defendant left, Mr Sarkar said he was ordered to hand over his wallet, attacked with a hammer, knocked unconscious and forced to reveal his PIN after being kicked awake - and urinated on.

Prosecutor Simon Foster said photos revealed injuries ‘all over his body’.

But the court heard the Crown Prosecution Service accepted Robertson’s basis of plea that he punched the victim and threw water over the victim.

Mr Sarkar left through a window as the front door key to the Portsmouth home could not be found, his attacker said.

Robertson said that Mr Sarkar went to the party, and handed over his wallet to a woman to buy more alcohol.

Robertson, who was on licence and has 20 convictions for 32 offences, said he fell asleep and woke to the victim and the woman arguing in the corner of a room.

‘I threw several punches at him, the complainant fell to the floor unconscious, I think he may have landed on an ashtray,’ he said.

Sentencing, Recorder Nicholas Haggan QC said he could only pass an ‘exceptional’ sentence ‘because the crown have accepted your basis of plea’.

He said the CPS accepted the basis on ‘background information of which the court is not apprised’.

Unyime Davies, for Roberston, told the court the victim’s medical evidence had been requested but none had been provided in the ‘strange’ case.

The police investigation did not support the complainant’s account, including forensic investigation, she said.

Ms Davies said Robertson had self-medicated depression and anxiety with alcohol for years but was now recovering and set to train for railway work.

Robertson, of Knox Road in Stamshaw, was handed a two-year term suspended for two years with alcohol treatment requirement and 25 days’ rehabilitation activities.

He was the victim of a serious assault in February this year and needed ongoing medical help, the court heard.

Prosecutor Mr Foster said ‘there’s plainly something of a drugs theme’ to the case and added that ‘evidence of drugs misuse was found in the relevant premises’.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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