Four jailed after man is 'branded'

The court heard the victim was branded with wire

Four men have been jailed after a mid Wales man was branded with the letter "t" for thief on his forehead after he burgled a garage.

Stanley Thompson, who is in his early 20s, was beaten with a baseball bat, threatened with branch-cutters and then burned with hot wire, Mold Crown Court heard.

Karl Pink, 23, from Church Stoke in Powys, and Keith Grogan, 24, from Treowen, Newtown, were each jailed for three-and-a-half years after they admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Stanley Thompson, who had previous convictions, was left with a visible scar and the court heard he was too scared to return to Newtown and had moved away to live.

Confession

Keith Grogan's brother Kevin, also from Treowen - who threatened to cut off the victim's fingers with the branch cutters - was jailed for two months after he admitted common assault.

A fourth defendant, Paul English, 26, also from Newtown, was jailed for 10 months after he admitted affray.

Prosecutor Andrew Jebb said that Pink suspected Thompson had been responsible for a burglary at his father's garage.

The court was told Pink picked Thompson up in his car, struck him with a baseball bat and took him to the home of the Grogan brothers last July.

In a bid to force a confession out of him he was beaten with the bat and Kevin Grogan threatened to cut his fingers and toes off with the branch cutters.

Screaming

The court heard Keith Grogan hit on the idea of branding Thompson and turned on a gas stove to heat up a piece of metal wire taken from a coat hanger.

Pink said it should be the letter T for thief, and held Thompson down while Keith Grogan branded him and made him hold the wire, burning the skin on his hand.

"He was in extreme pain and was screaming very loudly but the music was turned up to prevent him being heard," said Mr Jebb.

'Nasty weapons'

Judge Geoffrey Kilfoyl said the victim must have been terrified.

Pink was the instigator, Keith Grogan decided to brand the young man, and they had used nasty weapons after taking the law into their own hands.

All four had previous convictions and had played their part in different ways.

"The law and civilised society will not put up with people who go about inflicting their criminal rules on other people," the judge said.

"If society were for one moment to allow that basis to rule, then civilised life would slide away like shifting sand."

Pink's barrister John Maxwell QC said his client accepted he was the instigator but what had happened had not been planned.

David Garside QC, defending for Keith Grogan, said his client lived on sickness benefits because of a psychiatric history.

Mr Garside said Mr Thompson had a criminal record.

"If some people choose to live their lives in a particular way then they must accept that there may be consequences, even unlawful consequences," he said.