Dangerous thug jailed for eight years

AN Oldham thug was trapped by his DNA after he attacked and handcuffed a man at his isolated rural home.

Leeds Crown Court heard how the terrified victim, David Turner, was beaten unconscious, hooded, handcuffed and covered in fuel before being dumped in a pub car park.

Mr Turner (50) had left his rural home at Rishworth, near Halifax, and was brutally attacked on an isolated track as he got out of his car to open a gate two years ago.

During the attack Mr Turner scratched the face of one of his attackers and samples taken from his fingernails matched Elliott Ricketts’s DNA.

Ricketts (46), of Oak Road, Hollins, denied the charges but was convicted of robbery and kidnapping and was jailed for a minimum of eight years, minus the 570 days he has already spent in custody.

The other attacker has never been caught.

Lesley Dickinson, prosecuting, said Mr Turner could only remember coming round in the car park of the Turnpike Inn where he had been dumped and his hands cuffed behind his back.”

A witness saw his car being driven away and came to his aid.

Mr Turner suffered swollen eyes and bad bruising and, after the frightening experience, no longer lives alone.

Mr Nicholas Johnson, for Ricketts, said the offence was not the gravest category of its type.

“Much remains unexplained about the cause and the motivation,” he said.

The recorder, Bernard Gateshill, told Ricketts the sentence was a minimum he would serve.

Recorder Gateshill said he was satisfied Ricketts went to the isolated area to commit crime: “I do not know if it was robbery or burglary but I’m quite satisfied you were prepared to use serious violence to achieve your aims,” he said.

He described the attack as savage.

“He was knocked unconscious, handcuffed and hooded. And, most significantly, fuel was poured over him.”

He said the exercise was to terrify Mr Turner and the consequences to him were serious.

Ricketts, had received a total of 28 years in jail since 1993 for crimes which included robberies and a firearms offence.

Recorder Gateshill told Ricketts: “There is a significant risk you will commit offences of violence and robbery in the future. You are a dangerous man.”