WORKMATES who were convicted of assaulting and harassing a young apprentice have been handed unpaid work orders and told to pay their victim hundreds in compensation.
Andrew Addison, 31, and Joseph Richard Rose, 21, were yesterday sentenced at York Crown Court, after a trial which saw them accused of drawing penises all over their victim and giving a wedgie so severe it left him cut and bruised.
Addison, of Westbourne Road, Selby, had been found guilty of assaulting the apprentice at the shop fitting firm he managed; while Rose, of Main Street, Bubwith, was convicted of harassing the young man.
Both had been found not guilty of religiously aggravated assault, along with two of their colleagues.
Yesterday the Recorder of York Judge Paul Batty gave Addison 240 hours of unpaid work and told him to pay £1000 in compensation along with £500 towards the prosecution costs.
He said that as manager in charge of both Rose and the apprentice, Addison was in a position of responsibility and was therefore more culpable, while the young victim was particularly vulnerable.
The judge added: “The common assault was the final act in a whole series of incidents perpetrated on your hapless victim, many of which you were present for and did not lift a finger to stop.”
Addison assaulted the victim by giving him a “wedgie”, Judge Batty added, something designed to humiliate him and cause him pain and distress.
He went on to say it was “particularly chilling” that Addison wrote on social media “Selby is a small place”, something the judge said was designed to deter him from taking his complaints further than Addison’s immediate boss.
At the same hearing, twenty-one year old Joseph Rose was sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay £750 in compensation along with £500 towards prosecution costs.
Judge Batty said he too had been in a position of responsibility over the younger man.
“On two occasions when you had been drinking you bullied this young apprentice in a most appalling way.
“His crime seemed to be that he did not want to be ‘one of the lads’. He didn’t go out drinking with you, he was quiet and reserved and seen as an easy target.”
The court heard Rose had terrified the young man with a “mini flame thrower” made by setting fire to an aerosol, and on the second occasion had gone into the youngster’s hotel room and covered him “from head to toe” with “foul graffiti” including penises and obscene words, and even crosses.
The writing was in indelible ink, meaning it took days to wash off.
The judge said he had read references which showed both Addison and Rose were hard-working men with responsibilities, and neither of their offences warranted a prison sentence.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article