A monstrous couple who tried to murder their friend in a sickening torture-style attack have been jailed for a total of 50 years.
Jon Hamblin and Jessica Whinham subjected their guest, Paul Binks, to a horrifying ordeal, in which he was stabbed in his sleep and left with his intestines hanging out. He was then strangled with a cord before he was put in a bath and told he would be drowned.
Hamblin and Whinham tried to blame each other for what police labelled "inhuman" violence but were both convicted of attempted murder last year. Now Hamblin has been locked up for 29 years while Whinham got 21 years.
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As the pair were sentenced, victim impact statements from Mr Binks outlined the devastating impact his shocking ordeal has had on him. Two weeks after the attack, Mr Binks said: “I have flashbacks of being in the bath and begging for my life. I know I could have died. I have flashbacks and in my mind I feel the blade going inside me."
After the trial, in another victim statement, he added that he "sees them everywhere I go", adding: "I still get pain in my back and stomach where the scars are. Physically I’ve healed quite well but his has changed me as a person forever.”
He added that he rarely leaves the house, is terrified if anyone comes up behind him and he barricades himself into his home and takes weapons into his bedroom. He also has recurrent dreams, sometimes of being back in a room with his attackers and it happening again and he feels like he is dying.
Prosecutor John Elvidge KC argued there was “an element of torture” and a “sadistic” element to the attack, which he said involved "gratuitous degradation" but a judge ruled it did not involve sadistic conduct.
The apparent motive for the attack was Mr Binks sharing a rumour with Hamblin that pornographic model Whinham was a "grass", which he said he did to warn him to be careful. Newcastle Crown Court heard the pair attacked Mr Binks in Whinham's flat on Stanley Street West, North Shields, September 2021. During the trial, the victim described waking up to find Hamblin standing over him with a knife, having already stabbed him.
He said: “I looked down and pulled my top up and there was a tube, my intestine. I was trying to push it back in. I remember him trying to go for my throat and I put my hand up. He was standing over me with a knife, I couldn’t understand. I thought I was dreaming. I started thinking I’m badly injured here. I was bleeding profusely.
“Jess was mopping up the blood. There was a bit of flesh. I thought it was my liver. I was in a dream-like state. It was so surreal. Jess took the bit of flesh off me and put it in the bucket. Jess said ‘we’ve got your heart out, it’s in the bucket.'”
He continued: “I had no strength at all, my guts were hanging out. I think I went into survival mode. I remember thinking ‘I’m not dying here, I need to survive’.” Mr Binks said Whinham said: “It’s done, it’s done, you’re dead, it’s over, you’re dead.” He added: “I honestly thought he was going to kill me."
He said Hamblin tried to slash him again and he said “no,no, no, howay.” He added: “I remember thinking ‘He is going to kill me” and 'I’m dying'.” Mr Binks said Whinham “didn’t seem bothered at all” and was cleaning up. At one point, he said she said: “Aye that’s what you get for calling me a grass.”
He also said she was “trying to wind me up” and put music on saying they were the last songs he was going to hear. He said Whinham told him: “You’re a goner, no one is going to see you again.” Mr Binks added: “My family started going through my head. I started thinking ‘you are dying, this is it, this is how it happens.’" He went on: “I can’t get my head round the level of violence.”
He said Hamblin then put a phone charger around his neck and tightened it with his foot on his back, to the point he heard it creaking. He said they then put him in the bath. He added: “Jon put the hot water on and said he was going to drown me. I said ‘no, no, don’t drown me, it’s one of my worst fears'. I said just stab me. He said ‘it’s dead peaceful man, you will be alright, you are going to die anyway, you might as well have a peaceful death.'"
Mr Binks said Whinham complained her gas was being “wasted on you” by using hot water so swapped it to running the cold tap. He said he pulled the plug out and was begging for his life and telling them he didn’t want to die. He said Hamblin told him he was “basically already dead” and said he was going to “chop me up and put me all over North Tyneside.” After promising not to tell anyone what they had done, he was eventually told he could leave.
Mr Binks said: “I was gurgling, spitting out blood. I asked him to help me up. He said I couldn’t go unless I got myself out of the bath.” He said a surge of adrenaline helped him get out but he “remembered it ripping more” as he did so. He added: “I was keeping hold of my guts so I was keeping them in.”
After pleading for his life, Mr Binks was eventually allowed to leave and turned up bleeding heavily at a shocked couple's home in the early hours of the morning and nearly died on his way to hospital.
Mr Binks suffered seven separate knife wounds, including to his ear, chest, back and arm and one of them had gone into his liver. He also had a compression injury to his neck consistent with the charging cable being used as a ligature. The air ambulance arrived and he had no pulse on the way to hospital.
Hamblin, 43, of Stirling Drive, North Shields, who has 63 previous convictions, including for robbery, assault, affray, aggravated burglary and attempted robbery and Whinham, 21, of Stanley Street West, North Shields, who has no previous convictions, were both branded dangerous by Judge Robert Adams and told they must also serve two-thirds of their sentences behind bars. They were both also given indefinite restraining orders.
Jamie Hill KC, for Hamblin, said he continues to protest his innocence, adding: "Mr Hamblin is a prisoner with enhanced status and has had a number of trusted jobs in the kitchen and customer service department in Durham Prison, demonstrating a completely different side to his character."
Jonathan Cousins, for Whinham, acknowledged it was a “cruel and sickening ordeal” that Mr Binks suffered. He added that she was immature and endured trauma at a young age, adding: "That led to a troubled and damaged young woman trying to mask her trauma by consuming as many drugs as she could, which led to a very chaotic lifestyle.”
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