Teen drinker who left reveller in a coma outside Leeds bar jailed for attempted murder

Leon Richards repeatedly punched the man near the New Penny bar on Call Lane, before continuing the attack in an alleyway where he struck him with empty beer kegs, a piece of piping and stamped and kicked his head as he lay motionless on the ground.

He left and returned to the scene several times to continue the brutal assault on the 39-year-old man who lay unconscious.

Richards, 19, denied wrongdoing and stood trial at Leeds Crown Court, but changed his plea to guilty partway through the trial after seeing the CCTV from the incident.

He was sentenced today where he was told he must serve at least two-thirds of the 22-year sentence handed to him by the Recorder of Leeds, Guy Kearl KC. He will then serve the remainder on licence.

He told Richards it was an “unexplained but vicious and sustained attack”.

He added: “There was no justification for any form of fight, let alone the sustained attack which you engaged in with the level of violence that you used.

“By your guilty plea you now admit that you were intending to kill him.”

Richards, of Melton Road, Wakefield, said he had been drinking in Wakefield that night before going to Leeds.

He had been outside the Call Lane bar at around 4am on July 31 last year, when he inexplicably approached the victim and began punching him.

Richards later said the man had been talking to underage girls so he intervened, but that claim was “without substance”.

The victim did not fight back. Richards then walked into Pitfall Street and gestured for the man to follow him. He punched him again and he fell to the floor.

Richards walked away, but then returned a short time later, found the man motionless and struck him with the plastic pipe and aimed a full-force kick at him, before he was led away by door staff.

But rather than leave the scene, he then began picking up beer kegs stacked in the alleyway and aimed them at the motionless man’s head. He left again but returned, stamping on his upper body or head.

He then picked up a keg and struck him around the head 14 times.

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The victim suffered a brain haemorrhage which put him in a coma for 10 days. He also suffered fractures to his jaw and cheek, and his ear was partially severed. He was in hospital for four weeks.

In a victim impact statement, the man said his brain injury has stopped him working as a farmer. The long-term effects including a loss of balance, hearing damage and a disfigured ear.

He has not worked since the attack, and can not drive.

Recorder Kearl took into account that Richards was only young and had no previous convictions. He said that he will serve the first part of his sentence at a young offender institute before being transferred to a prison when he is old enough.