Jail for man who caused 'sickening injuries' to stranger

40-year-old James Wright was sentenced at Douglas Courthouse on Friday after pleading guilty to one charge of GBH with intent. 

 

The court heard how he had been summoned to a flat in Douglas in the early hours of June 7th last year by the woman who claimed she wanted 23-year-old Callum Hunter to leave. 

 

Mr Hunter, who she had met earlier that evening, was asleep in the living room and was awoken by a "painful blow to the head" - he was said to "stagger" towards Wright who then gripped him and "slammed" him into the stone fireplace. 

 

Wright then manhandled him through the flat before they both fell down the stairs - Mr Hunter suffered significant blunt force trauma with multiple facial fractures. 

 

He's had to undergo numerous operations to have metal plates fitted in his face and also requires a new left-eye socket - the mould for which has to be made in Germany. 

 

In a statement read out to the court he described how he has since become a recluse - never leaving his bedroom - and accused Wright of "ruining his life". 

 

Sentencing him Deemster Montgomerie told Wright that as a result of his violence the young man had become a "shell" of what he was. 

 

It's understood Wright will now apply to be moved to a prison in the North East of England to serve his sentence.