Three teenagers who behaved like a ‘pack of animals’ when they set upon a dog walker – including a 15-year-old girl who filmed on her phone before joining in – were put behind bars today.
John Hackett, 36, was found dead at his home the day after being repeatedly punched and kicked in a recreation ground near his home last April.
The girl and two boys who were also 15-years-old at the time of the attack sat side by side in front of a court dock today as a judge was told how they had been part of a group who had been ‘persistently’ taunting and abusing Mr Hackett as he walked pet Tyson in the weeks leading up to his death.
Video footage of the incident in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was earlier played to a packed court room and showed one of the boys throwing a stick – which Mr Hackett had been using to play fetch with his dog – at the professional driver, before the second male joined in a physical attack.
The court heard the victim was left ‘gasping’ for breath with his ‘eyes rolling back’ after being ‘quickly overpowered’ and placed in a headlock by one