Three men have been jailed for a combined 18 years for an armed burglary at a house in which one man was slashed with a knife and another was struck in the head with the butt of an imitation gun.
Jack Butcher, 24, Jack Pugh, 25, and Nicholas Eyles, 50, were wearing masks when they went to the house in Danes Crest, Brompton, Northallerton, in the early hours of the morning, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Jonathan Gittins said police received a report of a disturbance at about 5.30am on January 15 where the male and female householders and their named male friend had been playing darts and listening to music in the living room.
When officers and an ambulance crew arrived, the woman told them that the two male victims were inside the property and had been badly injured.
Officers saw one of the injured men “holding his neck, with blood on his clothes” as he left the property.
When police went inside the property, they found a “substantial amount of blood all over the house”.
They found the other injured man sitting at the top of the stairs struggling to breathe. He had injuries to his face and back.
One of the injured men told police they were playing darts in the lounge when they heard a loud bang as the burglars smashed open the patio doors.
The female householder and her partner rushed upstairs and locked themselves in the bathroom while their friend went outside and saw Butcher “coming through the garden gate leading to the back garden, armed with a big knife”.
He then saw Pugh walking towards him with a gun.
Pugh struck him on the forehead with the butt of the gun. The victim managed to get back to the front door where he tried to prevent the two masked raiders getting inside.
He was thrown to the hallway floor where the intruders attacked him again and asked him if he had any money.
Butcher then went upstairs where he started kicking in the bathroom door while shouting threats to kill the other male victim who had locked himself inside with his partner, who was screaming.
She told police that she recognised Butcher’s voice as he was kicking the bathroom door.
She said that Pugh put his foot through the door and forced his way in. A struggle ensued between her partner and Butcher who called for back-up from his mate Pugh who appeared to be carrying a black pistol.
During the struggle, Butcher slashed her partner in the back and neck with the knife. Butcher then told her he “still loved her”.
Butcher then went back downstairs where he slashed the other man – already writhing in agony on the floor – in the back with the knife.
One of the thugs then attacked the injured man again and they both ended up on the floor. Pugh took his phone before both raiders left the house.
It was then that the woman noticed a van parked nearby which she remembered seeing earlier that morning.
Inside the van was Nicholas Eyles, who got out and walked off towards Danelaw Gardens. Butcher and Pugh then reappeared, went back inside the house and one of them started to search the cupboards.
They then scarpered as the victims waited for police and paramedics to arrive. A neighbour had called police after noticing a white van “manoeuvring” in the street and hearing a disturbance coming from the neighbouring property.
She identified Butcher who was carrying a “large kitchen knife” and saw the raiders assaulting a man on the hallway floor as a woman screamed from inside the property.
She said the man inside the van, who was also masked, seemed anxious and kept honking his horn, shouting “hurry up!”
She thought she heard a gun shot inside the house as a woman screamed that “people had been stabbed”. She then saw two of the men leaving in the van and another walking off down the street.
Firearms police later arrested Eyles and Pugh at an address in nearby Danelaw Gardens. Butcher was also arrested at a nearby property.
The two injured men, one in his mid-30s and the other in his late 20s, suffered serious injuries and were taken to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough by ambulance.
The male victim who was struck with the gun suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung, along with serious wounds to his back, chest, forearm and wrist. His friend, the male householder, was treated for wounds to his face and back.
All three defendants were initially charged with aggravated burglary and wounding with intent and causing grievous bodily harm with intent as a joint enterprise. Pugh was also charged with possessing an imitation firearm and Butcher with carrying a knife.
They each initially denied the offences but pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary on the day of trial.
Pugh, of Hambleton Place, Thirsk, admitted carrying the imitation gun and Butcher admitted possessing the knife.
The wounding and GBH charges were ultimately dropped by the prosecution because they were part of the armed burglary.
Northallerton man Eyles, who admitted his part in the burglary on the basis that he was only the look-out and remained outside the property, admitted two further offences of assaulting an emergency worker in a separate incident in March 2023.
In that incident, he attacked two police constables who stopped him in a Honda Civic being driven suspiciously at the Texaco garage on Stokesley Road in Northallerton.
Eyles, who had been drinking, kicked one of the officers in the shin and knocked him to the ground.
He then ended up grappling with the other officer on the ground where he tried to bite the constable’s neck and face, before squeezing his private parts, causing “excruciating” pain. The officers had to use pepper spray to bring Eyles under control and arrest him.
Butcher, Pugh and Eyles appeared for sentence via video link on Friday after being remanded in custody.
Prosecuting barrister Mr Gittins said that Butcher, of Hambleton Avenue, Thirsk, had five previous convictions for nine offences including battery. Pugh had two previous convictions including GBH.
Eyles, the senior member of the raiding party, had 24 previous convictions, mainly for drug and acquisitive crimes but also for carrying a blade and violence including assaulting an emergency worker.
Defence barrister Paul Rooney, for Butcher, said his client had been in full-time employment.
Victoria Lamballe, for Pugh, said that her client wasn’t responsible for the serious injuries caused to the two male victims.
She said that despite an advantageous upbringing and good education, Pugh had developed a drug addiction which was at the root of his offending.
Gary Wood, for Eyles, said his client remained in the dairy van and wasn’t carrying a weapon during the break-in. He took no part in the violence.
He said that Eyles also had drink and drug problems which were the catalyst for his unenviable criminal record.
Recorder Andrew Sutcliffe KC said the victims had been severely traumatised and that Butcher had inflicted the serious injuries.
Jailing him for six years and 10 months, he told Butcher: “There’s no doubt that drug addiction caused you to behave in this appalling way. It doesn’t excuse it.”
Jailing Pugh for six years, the judge said it was highly regrettable that a man from a stable family was now bound for a lengthy jail sentence for a serious offence caused by his drug addiction, albeit he hadn’t caused any of the injuries.
Pugh was jailed for six years.
Eyles, of Valley Road, Northallerton, was jailed for five years and three months.
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