Pair locked up after 'vicious' baseball attack on man in Scarborough flat

David Fallows, 30, of Haggersgate, Whitby, and Dale Murray, 30, of Queen Street, Scarborough, left the victim with a serious cut to his head and a lasting back injury following the incident at the flat in Prince of Wales Terrace, Scarborough.

Prosecutor Chris Dunn told Leeds Crown Court that at least one of the men was brandishing a baseball bat when they attacked the named victim, who, more than two years on from the incident, was still suffering “considerable ongoing symptoms”.

Murray, Fallows and Murray’s girlfriend Melanie Catlin, 19, were arrested following the incident in March 2019 and initially charged with aggravated burglary with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

They denied the allegations, but Murray and Fallows ultimately admitted an alternative count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on the day their trial was due to take place.

Catlin, of Queen Street, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Public Order Act.

The Crown accepted their not-guilty pleas to aggravated burglary.

The three defendants appeared for sentence yesterday (May 26).

Defence counsel for Murray and Fallows, who is a father, said they were both working men and Fallows had suffered a personal tragedy just before the attack.

Catlin also had a job in the offing and had also suffered a family bereavement about a month before the incident.

Judge Simon Batiste said he had noted the seriousness of the injuries to the victim, including a “significant laceration to the head” and back injuries, and that he had to move out of his flat

following the attack.

He told Murray and Fallows: “This was a wholly unprovoked attack when you were (both) exceedingly drunk.

“You armed yourself with a baseball bat and attacked him with it in his flat, (causing) very serious injuries.”

Mr Batiste said that due to the seriousness of the offences and the “ongoing effect” on the victim, “only an immediate (prison) sentence can be justified”.

The judge jailed each of them for 21 months, of which they will serve half behind bars.

Catlin, who was 17 at the time of the incident, was given an 18-month community order with a 15- day rehabilitation programme and 80 hours’ unpaid work.