Teenage gang targeted man in late-night Portsmouth attack - but he was trained in martial arts

Portsmouth Crown Court heard Joshua Jones and Jack Avison, both 18, and Ethan Mckenna, 19, and another boy rained punches down on their victim for their own ‘perverse amusement’.

Victim Aaron Cronk, who was ‘totally innocent’ and had been listening to music, told police the boys’ actions were ‘pathetic’ but he had been left with a ‘sense of dread and trepidation’ about returning to St Mary’s Road by Kingston Park where he was targeted.

Mr Cronk, trained in martial arts, was able to defend himself in the ‘group attack’ but said he had been robbed ‘for seemingly no reason other than the perverse amusement of the cowards’ who attacked him.

The victim, who said his main emotion was that of 'fury' at being attacked, was left £110 out of pocket after losing a day’s work and having to pay for repairs to his damaged glasses’ frame.

Sentencing, judge Roger Hetherington said: ‘This was a despicable act carried out by the four of you on a defenceless man, for what? His bank cards, any money that might have been in the wallet and his watch.’

Each boy was handed a two-year jail term suspended for two years with £400 compensation to pay.

Addressing the trio on Thursday, judge Hetherington added the victim was 'set upon' by at least four people and said: 'That was a concerted group attack.

‘It matters not whether one came first and others followed. He was repeatedly punched and in the course of that assault his wallet was taken from him.’

A fourth boy, who cannot be named, had first approached Mr Cronk and was the ‘main instigator,’ said Gemma White representing Mckenna.

The window-fitter apprentice’s actions were ‘out of character,’ the barrister said.

Mr Williams, for trainee carpenter Avison, said: ‘There’s genuine remorse on the part of Mr Avison, he is now a hardworking young man trying to put his life back on track.’

Keely Harvey, for college student Jones, said: ‘This was something that was out of character for Joshua Jones then and is certainly out of character for the young man who is now before this court to be sentenced for this matter.’

Neither Jones or Mckenna have previous convictions, while Avison has two.

Judge Hetherington revealed Mckenna’s glove had DNA from blood of another man he encountered on the ground ‘extremely bloodied’ by the nearby railway bridge.

Mckenna had seen this man half an hour before the attack at around midnight on November 3, 2018.

Rejecting the attack on Mr Cronk was ‘impulsive,’ the judge said: ‘Ordinarily one would have expected that shocking encounter to have sobered up anyone who came across it so that at the very least they would not have contemplated themselves carrying out an assault on someone else in perhaps half an hour or so of coming across that man bloodied and prostrate on the floor but that is what happened.’

Mckenna and Avison were acquitted on the judge’s direction due to insufficient evidence of causing grievous bodily harm on the man near the railway bridge.

Jones and Avison must complete 100 hours’ unpaid work and complete a two-month tagged curfew between 9pm to 6am. Mckenna must serve a three-month curfew.

The judge reduced the trio's sentences as they were under 18 at the time, and they had no relevant previous.

Jones, of Mirabelle Mall, Berewood, Waterlooville; Avison, of Hayling Avenue, Baffins; and Mckenna, of Cunningham Road, Purbrook, denied robbery but were convicted after a trial in February.