Boy, 18, stabbed and left for dead after losing gang’s rottweiler dog
A teenage boy was stabbed 11 times after he lost a pet belonging to a gang.
The 18-year-old was taken to Pound Park in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, in October last year by three members of the group – Braydon Hall, 20, Jake Grainger, 18 and a third man.
He was robbed and then repeatedly knifed by gang leader Hall in a frenzied attack where he suffered incisions to his back, buttocks and stomach.
A stab wound to his throat passed completely through his neck coming out the other side.
On Thursday Hall, of Hoddesdon, was jailed for 11 years after admitting wounding with intent and possessing a bladed article at St Albans Crown Court.
Prosecutor Martin Mulgrew said the day before on October 21, the victim, Hall, Grainger and a fourth young man had all been ‘hanging round’ Hoddesdon town centre with the dog, described as a large rottweiler.
Hall asked the victim to look after the animal at an address in the town that night, which he agreed to do.
However, by the morning, he discovered the dog had escaped and was missing.
Mr Mulgrew said Hall planned to punish the teenager, and all four were later captured on CCTV walking towards the park.
A member of the public out that morning, said the prosecutor, had heard Hall shouting ‘I cannot believe you lost my f…… dog’.
The court then heard having made their way into a secluded part of the park, the teenager found himself surrounded by the other three, before Hall demanded he empty his pockets of all his possessions and cash.
He did and it was then that Hall, who was armed with a knife, repeatedly stabbed him.
The court was told that, had it not been for the intervention of members of the public and the emergency service, the victim could have died.
The boy underwent 16 hours of life-saving surgery and was put into an induced coma for two weeks.
He spent a total of two-and-half-months in intensive care.
Mr Mulgrew said the wounds the boy suffered that day meant he was physically impaired and scarred and had also suffered a mental breakdown.
Grainger, who was was 17 at the time and also of Hoddesdon, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent on the basis of joint enterprise.
He was given a sentence of six years and six months in a young offenders’ institution.
The judge said Hall had held the knife during the attack but he said Grainger had delivered a number of blows.
A third man is due to be sentenced in October.
Hall, who had been 19 at the time, had nine previous convictions including battery and possessing a bladed article.
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