A man attacked a paedophile with a hammer after he caught him viewing horrific images of children being abused.
David Lane and Peter Ash had slept together but when Lane, 35, woke up he caught Ash, 49, viewing the vile videos on a TV screen in the attic bedroom. As Ash began to show him the videos, Lane told him to stop but he refused.
Lane then struck Ash in a frenzied attack with a hammer to the back of his head, the MEN reports.
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A violent struggle ensued, with both men using a knife and a pair of scissors. Lane was eventually forced out of Ash’s flat, before Ash fled for help. Lane, of Middlewich, Cheshire, returned to Ash's flat to retrieve his clothes before getting an Uber back home and immediately calling police.
During the phone call he admitted: “I tried to kill somebody, I imagine he’s in more pain than me… I saw the TV and what he said and couldn’t stop myself…. My intention was to kill him so he can’t hurt anyone else”.
Lane was originally charged with attempted murder but the prosecution later accepted a plea to causing wounding with intent, due to his police interview, in which he said he didn’t intend to kill him. Peter Ash has since pleaded guilty to five offences of possession and distribution of indecent images, eight drug trafficking offences and one of simple possession of drugs.
He will be sentenced later this month.
Prosecuting, Henry Blackshaw said Lane and Ash met on Grindr, in a group called "Northwest Slammers", which is slang for injecting crystal meth. They arranged to meet up to have sex and take drugs and on June 28 and Ash picked up Lane from his home in Middlewich and brought him to his house in Gorton.
Manchester Crown Court heard they engaged in sex and took drugs including crystal meth and GHB, before Lane fell asleep. At around 2am he woke up to find Ash viewing images of child abuse.
The court was told Lane suffered from abuse and neglect during his childhood and was physically abused in a recent adult relationship, and has since been diagnosed with PTSD. A psychiatrist concluded in a report that the condition would not cause him to lose control, but it would make him more vulnerable.
After watching and sharing the videos, Ash fell asleep. At which point, Lane armed himself with a hammer that he had previously used to put a picture up in his sister’s house, and struck Ash to the back of the head.
Mr Blackshaw continued: “Unsurprisingly he wakes up and starts to try to defend himself. A chaotic and violent melee then ensued, with both men using what was to hand.
“Ash describes Lane then arming himself with what was a small knife, which was in the room from them eating. Such an item has not been recovered, though it is right to say that Ash had a serious hand injury consistent with the use of such an implement.
“Ash also states that Lane armed himself with scissors, which broke and were also used against him, seemingly to cause the superficial lacerations to his torso.”
Ash was left with nine wounds to his head, tenderness to the right temple, a fractured cheekbone and had since undergone surgery to his hand.
After leaving the flat, Lane informed police of what happened, and informed them about the images Ash had shown him. In his police interview, he was asked about his initial call in which he stated he ‘tried to kill someone.'
He said: “Wouldn’t you want someone dead if they were watching that, seeing what he does to children, young boys, doing what he did to me. But then I didn’t want to kill him.
“Part of me did and part of me didn’t. Killing him would be wrong, and that’s what I was telling myself. I was thinking about the screams over and over in my head, and no one was helping the children.”
Mitigating for Lane, Brenda Campbell KC said her client was in "freefall" at the time, after being the victim in an abusive relationship, and had experienced trauma, abuse and neglect as a child. She said he was working as a carer for vulnerable adults at the time, and was described by friends and colleagues as "talented, devoted and a kind young man".
Ms Campbell said the videos showed "unspeakable and unthinking violence" and that her client asked Ash to stop and he didn’t. She said he accepted causing the first strike. She added that Lane helped the police to stop a "dangerous man" and his directions led them exactly to find evidence of the "most heinous and unspeakable" type.
Concluding her mitigation, she said Lane has spent seven months in custody and is clean of drugs but was "routinely under supervision for the risk of suicide and self harm".
Lane, of Cross Lane, was jailed for three years, of which he will serve half in prison, less the seven months he spent on remand.
Explaining the sentence, Judge Potter said the starting point for section 18 wounding with intent is five years imprisonment, with a range from four to seven years. He said the aggravating factors were that there were repeated blows to Mr Ash, with three significant weapons.
Looking at mitigating factors, he said that Lane has no previous convictions and that he would get a 20% reduction in his sentence because of his guilty plea. He said Lane’s assistance with the police allowed them to discover Ash and the vile images and drugs he accessed.
Lane's sentence was reduced by 21 months due to the mitigation, and further reduced by 20% to reflect his guilty plea. He was sentenced to three years, of which he will serve half of that time in prison, less the time he has already spent on remand in custody.
Lane will then be released on licence for the remainder of his sentence.
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