Leamington man jailed for attacking fellow drug-user with a baseball bat

A Leamington man carried out a baseball bat attack on a fellow drug-user just days after being given a suspended sentence for a public order offence.

And Ross Gilby is now behind bars after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to wounding his victim and being in breach of his suspended sentence.

Gilby (31) of Waterside Court, Clapham Terrace, Leamington, was jailed for 14 months for the attack, consecutive to one month of the suspended sentence which he was also ordered to serve.

On May 10 this year Gilby, who was already subject to one suspended sentence, was sentenced to ten weeks suspended for 18 months for causing damage and a public order offence.

“Just four days after that, this incident took place,” prosecutor Andrew Tucker told the court.

“This was over a debt that was owed between drug-users in respect of crack cocaine.”

At three in the morning a fellow drug user turned up to collect £10 he was owed by Gilby, who at first would not open the door to his flat.

He persisted, and when Gilby opened the door, armed with a metal baseball bat, the defendant asked him to go with him to another area of the flats.

It was dark there, and Gilby then attacked him with the bat, striking him twice to the head and once to the arm as he tried to fend off the blows.

As a result of the attack his victim had a deep wound to his head which bled heavily and needed three stitches.

Gilby then disposed of the bat in the nearby canal, and sent messages to members of his family in which he referred to putting forward a false story and putting his clothes in the wash.

And when he was arrested, he claimed he had been acting in self-defence, added Mr Tucker.

Nick Devine, defending, said: “What cannot be escaped is that (the victim) turned up unannounced and probably unwanted at three o’clock in the morning.

“The door was opened, and there was a short conversation before the two of them went into the area where the assault took place.

“His period on remand has been his first experience of custody. He went in as someone whose life, as he put it, was on the road to nowhere and indulging in heroin and cocaine.

“If there has been any positive outcome in his reman in custody since May, it is that he has used his time wisely.”

Mr Devine said Gilby had undertaken a number of educational and vocational courses and has asked to take part in an anger management course.

“He is trying to make sure that when he comes out, he is free of drugs and with something to offer to make himself a useful member of the community.”

Sentencing Gilby, Judge Peter Cooke told him: “I have taken on board everything Mr Devine has said on your behalf, and I think there is force in what he says about the culpability side of the equation.”