Royal Navy sailor suffered ‘brain trauma’ in Guildhall Square attack by teenage thief who stole iPhone 11

Thug Jordan Hill chatted with Royal Navy warfare gunner Scott Williamson in Guildhall Square before punching him and ‘using his knee’ on his face in an unprovoked vicious attack – fleeing with the victim’s iPhone 11.

Drunken Hill, 19, fled but told people nearby: ‘I’ve just beaten up a guy, I think I’ve beaten him to death. You need to go and help him.’

Mr Williamson looked as if he had ‘been given a severe beating,’ judge William Ashworth said.

Addressing Hill, the judge added: ‘His eyes were swollen, practically shut, his face puffy and swollen and bloodied from your behaviour.

‘He was unconscious for a period and suffered a minor brain trauma - and you ran off.’

Judge Ashworth jailed Hill for 10 months, ruling it was an ‘unprovoked attack’ followed by an ‘absolutely gratuitous headbutting’ of a police officer.

Prosecutor Daniel Frier told Portsmouth Crown Court the attack happened at around 12.30am on February 16.

Detailing the prosecution case, Mr Frier said: ‘He recalls being approached by the defendant who started chatting to him.

‘He told Mr Hill he was in the Royal Navy and he was heading back.’

‘The next thing Mr Williamson recalls is having his head repeatedly stamped on whilst on the floor. He said he didn’t do anything to instigate it.

‘He describes the stamps as being so hard and so frequent that it felt like more than one person doing it.’

Hill had drunk an entire bottle of whisky on the night of the attack.

Daniel Reilly, mitigating, said Hill accepted repeatedly punching Mr Williamson, did not accept kicking him, but did agree he was ‘using his knee to strike the face of the aggrieved’.

Hill was arrested at a nearby student hall of residence acting ‘manic’ and upset. As police spoke to him he headbutted a police sergeant cutting his lip.

He told police: ‘I did punch that bloke, I did punch him up.’

Hill, now of Roke Lane, Witney in Godalming, Surrey, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, theft and assaulting an emergency worker.

He has a previous caution for shoplifting and common assault.

Daniel Reilly, mitigating, said his client had served the equivalent of a seven-month sentence on remand, was ‘unstable’ due to drink and drugs at the time and was living in a hostel having been homeless when he left home.

Hill was previously living at The Portsmouth Foyer in Greetham Street. The court heard he has cleaned up his act, and is not drinking or taking drugs.

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