Pair jailed for savage street revenge attack

TWO people who were involved in a “revenge attack” which left a man suffering multiple stab wounds have been jailed.

- By CARL EVE

Tommy McTighe and Gemma Vanstone

Tommy McTighe, 34, and Gemma Vanstone, 35, appeared at Plymouth Crown Court on Friday where they were sentenced after being found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

McTighe was also convicted of being in possession of an offensive weapon, namely a metal pole.

McTighe pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial to one count of being in possession of crack cocaine. The jury deliberated for two hours and 18 minutes before returning guilty verdicts on the remaining charges.

The jury heard the pair - and another as yet unidentified man - lured their victim, a man in his 50s, to an alley off Hotham Place in Millbridge shortly before 11pm on March 25 last year.

They arrived in a black Mercedes car, driven by McTighe, who armed himself with the metal pole. The unidentified man armed himself with a machete. Both put on dark face coverings while Vanstone - who had been smuggled to the scene in the boot of the car - called up a drug line, claiming to want to order drugs to be delivered, with the aim of luring the possessor of the phone to the scene to be attacked.

The jury had heard the ambush was orchestrated by McTighe as a form of retribution for a burglary which had taken place at his flat - as he suspected the possessor of the drug-line phone was responsible. The victim duly arrived, expecting to sell drugs.

However, the court was later informed by legal representatives of both McTighe and Vanstone that the victim was not the man the group expected. But he was attacked anyway, with McTighe claiming he only later realised it was someone he knew well and had since apparently reconciled with, according to his advocate Katie Churcher.