A thug “gratuitously” stamped on a prone and defenceless man’s head twice for allegedly spitting blood at him.
The victim was said to be already injured with a bleeding nose and mouth when Robert Fletcher violently attacked him outside a Maidstone block of flats in the early hours of August 18 last year.
Robert Fletcher was jailed for 28 months for several offences. Photo: Kent Police
The two stamps were landed 22 minutes apart, leaving the man “completely out of it” and with bruising around his eye, eye socket and cheek.
But although there were only photographs of the man’s face available at Fletcher’s sentencing hearing and no medical evidence or victim impact statement, a judge said his “dangerous and thuggish” behaviour had worsened any pre-existing injuries and could have led to death.
Fletcher, 40, and the victim, who was not named during proceedings at Maidstone Crown Court on Tuesday (January 14), were with Fletcher’s girlfriend and another woman outside Miller Heights when violence flared.
Fuelled by drink and drugs, the heroin addict was captured on CCTV striking the man with his trainer-shod foot on two occasions as he lay on a raised flower bed.
Prosecutor Daniel Santos-Costa told the court: “It was reported by members of the public there was a fight outside Miller Heights in Lower Stone Street.
Miller Heights, in Lower Stone Street, Maidstone, was cordoned off after the attack on August 18, 2024
“The defendant was seen to kick the victim twice in the head and the Crown’s case is that he was laying down and defenceless at the time.”
The two women intervened not just between the two stamps being meted out but also after the second to prevent any further assault.
Mr Santos-Costa said there was “still barely any movement” from the victim.
“The CCTV footage zooms in on the victim and he appears to be very unresponsive and there is clearly blood on his face,” he added.
“The defendant says the victim was already injured but it’s the Crown’s case that aggravates the offence rather than mitigates it.”
Miller Heights in Maidstone
Fletcher, of Broadway Heights, Broadway, Maidstone, was arrested at the scene and found in possession of a small amount of cocaine for personal use. One of his trainers was also stained with blood.
At the time, he was on bail awaiting sentence for six shoplifting offences committed between September and November 2023, and three between February and March last year, in respect of stealing goods worth a total of £1,210.
So prolific was the crook that after those first set of thieving crimes and having pleaded guilty, magistrates made it a condition of his bail that he not enter any shop with a bag.
But Fletcher, who has 25 previous convictions for 54 offences, including possessing a firearm, robbery, battery and burglary, simply flouted that ban to carry out the second lot of thefts.
For the attack in August last year, he was originally charged with causing grievous bodily harm but a guilty plea to the alternative, less serious offence of assault causing actual bodily harm was later accepted by the prosecution.
‘It’s violent, dangerous, thuggish, gratuitous – all of those things…’
But Fletcher, who also admitted possessing cocaine and nine shoplifting charges, disputed the number of stamps delivered, maintaining there was just one.
This was not accepted by the prosecution, however, nor by Judge Oliver Saxby KC after he had viewed CCTV footage of the incident.
The judge also condemned the defendant’s behaviour that night after his barrister Cathy McCulloch had told the court that a now drink and drug-free Fletcher recognised that his actions were “unacceptable”.
“It’s more than that, he could have killed him,” replied Judge Saxby. “It’s violent, dangerous, thuggish, gratuitous – all of those things.”
Ms McCulloch told the court Fletcher had demonstrated “some form of sympathy and empathy” for the victim by staying with him until help had arrived.
Maidstone Crown Court in Barker Road, Maidstone. Picture: Sean McPolin
Furthermore, she said that having also seen the footage, he was “quite shocked and ashamed” of himself.
“He was drink and drug-fuelled and was angry that the man had spat blood all over him,” Ms McCulloch explained.
“That was no reason to go and do what he did do. He knows that now but at the time he thought that was the way to respond.”
She added that while the injuries “looked horrific”, there was no evidential support that would put them in the highest category of harm.
The court was also told the shoplifting offences were committed at a time when Fletcher was homeless.
‘Stamping on his head twice could easily have caused him very serious harm. Goodness, you could have in fact killed him…’
But Ms McCulloch said he was now clean from drugs and determined to “better himself” on his release.
Jailing Fletcher for two years and four months, Judge Saxby said he was “yet to be convinced” he had shown a real sense of shame.
Nor, he remarked, had Fletcher accepted “full responsibility” for his violent assault on the vulnerable victim.
“Stamping on his head twice could easily have caused him very serious harm. Goodness, you could have in fact killed him, as you now, by nodding, accept,” the judge told him.
“Stamping on the head is unacceptable violence.”
Fletcher has already served five months on remand so is expected to be released in about nine months, imprisonment Judge Saxby said was “richly deserved”.