Teenager jailed after causing multiple facial fractures in a 'serious act of violence and robbery'

Anthony McAllister, 18, who robbed a man after punching him so hard he fractured his victim’s jaw, cheekbone and eye socket has been given an 18 month, immediate prison sentence.

McAllister, was aged 17 at the time of a violent incident which occurred as a man was walking back to his Carlisle hotel alone at 11:30pm on 3 August last year.

CCTV showed the man pausing outside the Walkabout bar, off Botchergate, and in conversation with McAllister, who was present with three companions.

McAllister appeared to deliver a single forceful blow to the man’s face out of nowhere.

“He immediately goes to the ground,” prosecutor Brendan Burke told Carlisle Crown Court, “whereupon the defendant removes his neck chain and just walks off.”

The man woke in his hotel room the next morning with a significant black eye, swelling and pain.

He claims he remembered little of the incident but realised his silver chain was missing.

McAllister was found that night, hiding and out of breath in an alleyway between Bedford and Dowbeck roads in the city.

He was later exposed as the robber by a detective who saw CCTV stills of the incident. “He clearly recognised the defendant because he had seen him in earlier court proceedings in the public gallery,” said Mr Burke.

His victim, a painter and decorator, attended hospital in his home city of Sunderland on 5 August where he was found to have fractures to several parts of his face.

He spoke in an impact statement about anxiety, a paranoid feeling of persecution that was about to be attacked and his confidence being diminished.

“He has generally lost trust in other people,” said the prosecutor.

McAllister from Carlisle, admitted robbery and over a video link read a letter to the sentencing judge.

The teen spoke of “a lot going on” in his family life at the time, of mental health “not in the right place” and not recalling the robbery due to intoxication.

“I want to sincerely apologise for my actions. I know what I have done was wrong and should not have happened,” he stated, before saying of the victim. “I hope he can find it in his heart to forgive me.”

Judge Barker took into account the teen’s tender age, immaturity and vulnerability but imposed an immediate custodial sentence for what he said was “a serious act of violence and robbery”.

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