A prolific Nottingham criminal known for walking around the city costumed as the Joker has been jailed after dropping a bowling ball on a council worker’s head, leaving them with permanent brain damage.
Damien Hammond was high on the drug Mamba when he targeted his prey who was collecting a discarded TV left in the street.
The 31-year-old roared from his flat that he wanted the item before dropping the ball, encased in a pair of jeans, from his first-floor window 14 feet up.
He was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court. Judge James Sampson condemned him to 16 years in jail.
Judge James Sampson said that he was a volatile person who would almost certainly offend again, before labelling the crime a wicked act.
The incident, on 30 December 2019, left the council worker with a fractured skull and caused a brain haemorrhage.
After it happened, Hammond, of Strelley Road in the city’s Bilborough area, engaged in a two-hour standoff with police threatening to kill everyone who attempted to get into his flat.
After eventually setting fire to himself, he jumped out of the window, where he was detained by police.
Prosecutors said Hammond, who has a history of mental health problems, had performed more than 100 aggressions over the last 19 years dating back to when he was only 12. Among them was a 12-month prison sentence for wounding in 2016.
In a statement issued after the sentencing, Detective Constable Sarah Gregg, of Nottinghamshire Police said that evidence demonstrated that when he dropped the heavy bowling ball from his first-floor window, he was completely aware that the council workers were under the windows and he meant to hurt one of them.
This man should never be freed from jail, he has mental health problems and still won’t be reformed even after 16 years, and he probably won’t even do the entire sentence. He should have been stuck in Broadmoor and told that it’s Gotham City.
Although what was the point of putting this man in prison, he has severe mental health problems and should have been put in a psychiatric unit. I’m sure there are a plethora of mental health facilities where he wouldn’t present a danger to himself or others.
A secure hospital would have been more beneficial and they didn’t even have to give a release date, he could have been in there indefinitely, and why was he not locked up permanently years ago?
This man had 100 offences under his belt in 19 years. He wandered around like he was the Joker and nobody saw this as a red flag. Typical Government who concluded that putting them out on the streets – what was it called, oh yes, care in the community, but there was no care in the community, they were just left to get on with it.
This man has been having mental health problems all his life, yet no one noticed, which means our Government have let him down and the poor council worker who is now brain-damaged for the rest of his life. Who else are the Government going to let down – everyone!
Why was this man even on the streets, he should have been institutionalised a long time ago, but then our Government did away with places like this because it took too much of their time and effort, and of course, far too much money. It was easier to unleash the beast and let them get on with it in the hope that nobody got hurt in the process.
