'You were like an animal stalking its prey'

A drunken teen who followed another reveller then knocked him cold was likened to an animal stalking its prey.

Jay Gaff, who turned 18 just days earlier, was captured on CCTV larking around after delivering the knock out blow.

This Is Wiltshire:

Kameran Muhid (left) and Jay Gaff Pictures: WILTSHIRE POLICE

Sentencing now 19-year-old Gaff to 21 months’ imprisonment, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “You, Mr Gaff, crept up behind [the victim] like an animal stalking his prey and you punched him forcefully to the back of his head causing him to go to the floor unconscious, where he remained.

“Not only was it a cowardly attack but you simply didn’t care about what had happened to the man you struck and showed no interest. In fact, on the CCTV footage it seems you found it amusing.”

Gaff’s co-defendant, Kameran Muhid, 19, was sentenced to two years’ eight months’ imprisonment after he admitted a common assault on the same victim, causing actual bodily harm to another man, an earlier nightclub affray and breaching a suspended sentence for supplying class A drugs.

READ MORE: Pair jailed for night time assaults

Repeat offender spared mandatory minimum sentence

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Russell Bastow Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

A burglar whose record for breaking and entering dates back to 1993 has been jailed for his latest house raid.

But Russell Bastow was spared the mandatory minimum sentence of three years usually given to “third strike” burglars after a judge at Swindon Crown Court heard the 41-year-old had turned his life around.

He was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment.

READ MORE: Jail for notorious burglar who upended ashes during latest break-in

Cannabis gardener discovered in his pants

A cannabis gardener was found in a £116,000 Gorse Hill drug factory wearing only a pair of underpants, a court heard.

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Cannabis found by police in the house Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

Albanian national Mirjan Smakaj was said to have been tricked into working at the cannabis factory -located in a terraced home in Omdurman Street - by fellow countrymen.

He admitted production of cannabis and was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment.

READ MORE: Cannabis factory 'gardener' found in his pants

Royal Wootton Bassett stabber 'acted instinctively'

A man “instinctively” stabbed an older man with a single swipe that put his victim in hospital for a week.

Joseph Bridgeman, who was jailed for four years and 10 months, had come to his friend’s aid after they were challenged by a mum, her son and a family friend in Royal Wootton Bassett last September.

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Joseph Bridgeman Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

The 21-year-old produced a knife after being assaulted by the family friend and stabbed him in the side. The knife, which had a blade estimated to be eight to 12 inches long, pierced the victim’s liver and right kidney.

Sending Bridgeman down for 58 months at Swindon Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “It seems you intervened and during that intervention you were struck. Your immediate reaction was to pull a knife which you’d clearly just been routinely carrying and you then stabbed that man with one swiping motion.

“Your advocate describes it as instinct. If it is, it is worrying and it amply demonstrates why it is so dangerous to carry knives.”

READ MORE: Jail for stabber who put Royal Wootton Bassett victim in intensive care