A young man was lured into an alley by a girl before being attacked from behind by two thugs who stamped on him, breaking his jaw, and stabbing his thigh with a machete. The victim lay unconscious while the attack continued and after the two were pulled away by friends and walked off leaving their victim suffering an epileptic fit.

After the attack in an alley off Guildhall Lane near Leicester Cathedral, the 20-year-old victim was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary where he spent the next four days receiving treatment. One of the attackers, Joel Lanycia, 19, went to the police and admitted his part in the attack and later Kian Moore, who had used the machete on the victim, was identified by the victim in a police line-up.

At Leicester Crown Court on Friday the pair were both jailed for their roles in the attack, which happened in the early hours of Sunday, August 14, last year. The court heard that everyone involved had been out at city centre nightclubs and had met up near the catherdal at about 4am.

READ MORE: Two men brought to court charged with serious attack on nightclubber in Leicester city centre

A girl who the victim did not know asked him to join her in an alleyway where they sat on a wall and talked - but the court heard that was just a ruse. Moore walked into the alley and stood nearby and then Lanycia sneaked up behind the victim and punched him hard in the back of the head.

His second punch, to the victim's face, knocked him onto the ground, where he is thought to have lost conscious and remained stationary while the pair continued to kick him and stamp on him. The CCTV footage of the attack, shown in court, showed Moore and Lanycia's friends watching the attack continue for a while before moving in to break it up.

After initially moving away, Moore went back to the man with a machete and stabbed him, leaving a 5cm gash in the victim's thigh, which has left a permanent scar. In a statement read out in court the victim described how he was still scared to leave his home without his mum or dad.

He said: "It's very difficult for me to lead a normal life as I'm scared to go out and meet friends or go to work. When I'm feeling down I look at my scar and feel even worse and think, 'why did this happen to me?'

"What did I do to deserve this?" In the statement, written four weeks after the attack, he said he was still struggling to put weight on his leg.

Lanycia, 19, of Littlegarth, Aylestone, had admitted grievous bodily harm, while Moore, 22, of Chettle Road, New Parks, Leicester, admitted grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing a blade in public. Katya Saudek, representing Moore, said the incident was "not how he normally behaves at all.

Then and Now, images of Leicester post Lockdown, October 2020.
Leicester Cathedral
They attacked their victim near Leicester Cathedral

She said the attack was prompted by something Moore had heard about the victim. She said: "It was not his fight. he had heard something about the complainant and out of loyalty to other parties took on something that was not his fight. He happened to come across the complainant."

Phil Gibbs, representing Lanycia, said his client was only 18 at the time and had ruined his future. He said he "got caught up in the bravado" and that he joined in due to "misguided loyalty, fuelled by drink". He described his client as having suffered neglect and sexual abuse in the past but had finished school and was working at Starbucks at the time of the attack.

He added that Lanycia had missed out on going to the USA on a football scholarship. He said: "He had a very bright future and his actions on that night destroyed any prospect of that. The affect is crushing for him."

Recorder Adrian Reynolds, sentencing the men, told them: "What you did on this night was unforgiveable. He was lured into an alleyway with you, Mr Lanycia, coming up behind him so he wouldn't see you.

"You landed a heavy punch and then the two of you absolutely laid into him when he was on the ground, when he was possibly unconcious and certainly defenceless." He said the pair were lucky that their friends had intervened and were helping the victim while they were walking away.

The judge said: "For all you could have known he may have been dying." He said he accepted that Lanycia did not know that Moore had a knife on him.

The court also heard that just a month before the attack, Moore had been sentenced for drug dealing and given a community order. Moore was jailed for four years and four months and will have to serve two thirds of that term before being released on licence. Lanycia was sentenced to three years and eight months detention, of which half will be spent behind bars.

The judge added: "The victim suffered grievously from what you did to him that night. He was in hospital for four days and contracted an infection.

"To hear someone of his age say he couldn't go out without his mother and father is truly sobering. He has a scar on his leg and the mental scars will take even longer to heal."

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