A former B&Q worker who beat a co-worker "within an inch of her life" in a pair of steel toe-capped shoes has been jailed for life. Andy Hurns left his victim horrifically facially disfigured. His minimum term was set at 21 years.
Hurns was drunk when he attacked her in Tunnel Road, Retford, and escaped with just her mobile. Hurns, who worked with the victim at the distribution outlet in Retford Road, Worksop, was found guilty by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, February 18, of trying to kill the woman, who lived alone in a property opposite where Hurns used to live.
Judge Gregory Dickinson QC, the Recorder of Nottingham, told Hurns he had subjected the victim to a sustained and brutal attack with his fists and steel toe capped shoes. "You deliberately inflicted on her a very serious injury - you kicked a hole in the centre of her face, causing terrible and life-changing injury," he said.
Read more: B&Q worker beat co-worker "within an inch of her life"
Hurns, 32, of Edgbaston Drive in Retford, had forced his way through her front door, demanding cash and jewellery from her, and when she resisted, he beat her within an inch of her life, only stopping when police arrived. The jury saw pictures of blood around her Tunnel Road home - all hallmarks of the savage beating he inflicted.
He kicked her in the head and ribs as she lay defenceless on the floor, and braced himself against a door and stamped on her face. When she attempted to escape, he pulled her back into the house, dragging her and closing the door behind him.
Now she has to drink from a baby cup and eat with a teaspoon. She told Nottingham Crown Court on Monday, April 11: "I was dragged. My hair was found in my green bin by my family. My dog came to me as I was lying in the hall. He stood at the door of the living room and looked me in the eye". Hurns was still in her home after the bloodied assault and escaped through a window.
She said, from behind a curtain around the witness box to block her view from Hurns, that she had feared that night he would kill her and her dog, who tragically passed away one year later. "Hurns has wrecked my life as I know it".
At the time of the attack, Hurns had been released early from a 40-month prison term for causing death by dangerous driving of a pregnant mum after towing an unroadworthy van for 27 miles.
He was jailed in 2018 but released before the Retford attack on November 24, 2020.
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