John Hackett: How park row over dog mess led to ‘much loved’ man beaten to death by teenage gang

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An altercation over dog mess in a park led to a vicious assault and a “much loved” man’s death by the hands of a teenage gang.

John Hackett, 36 – a beloved son, brother, nephew and cousin – would stroll his dog at a park in Warwickshire after work on daily basis.

It was on a type of day by day walks that he was fatally attacked by three youngsters in April final yr, whereas the remainder of the gang of 12 watched on and filmed the violence for his or her “entertainment”.

The 16-year-old woman and two boys, aged 15 and 16, who can’t be recognized due to their age, admitted manslaughter and had been all jailed by Mr Justice Choudhury KC at Warwick Crown Court in Leamington Spa on Thursday.

Detective Chief Inspector Collette O’Keefe, from the Warwickshire Police Major Investigation Unit, advised The Independent the “haunting” footage of Mr Hackett pleading, surrounded by screaming and shouting, “will stay with me” as she issued a warning over younger individuals’s social media use.

“It’s horrific,” she mentioned. “Rather than filming they should have been intervening and preventing what happened – perhaps John would have been here to tell the tale.”

Instead, Mr Hackett limped residence from Snowhill Recreation Ground on the night of 25 April, with DCI O’Keefe describing him because the “walking wounded”.

The following morning, his physique was found by his devastated mom on the prime of the steps in the home on Camp Hill Road in Nuneaton that they shared. Mr Hackett was pronounced lifeless by emergency companies at 8am, with the three offenders arrested later that day.

The police officer believes the mindless death was tragically unintended and unplanned.

She mentioned: “It never needed to get to that level. It was anti-social behaviour that ultimately escalated over a period of weeks… The people involved did it for their own entertainment. I don’t think for one minute they thought John was going to die.”

She defined the killing shockingly originated in a single event when Mr Hackett didn’t choose up his dog’s mess. The youngsters started verbally abusing him and calling him names in relation to that incident, along with his household describing how he was “bullied and tormented” over the next weeks.

The police officer suspected Mr Hackett was an “easy target” as he would reliably stroll his dog on daily basis after work, so the offenders had been conscious of his routine. He additionally “looked different”, with lengthy hair and garments not like what the defendants would put on.

She mentioned Mr Hackett retaliated to the verbal abuse on the day he was attacked, possible out of frustration. “That was the green light to that group to go in and attack him,” she mentioned. Evidence from the youngsters’ cell phones steered the group had deliberate to verbally abuse him however not to bodily assault him.

After being alerted by Mr Hackett and a member of the general public, police attended the scene and spoke to the three attackers who all claimed they had been performing in self-defence. The officers then went to Mr Hackett’s home the place they discovered him in appreciable misery, having suffered accidents to his head and chest, and rushed him to hospital. However, he discharged himself two hours later and went again residence, the place he collapsed the next morning.

Mr Hackett was beaten to the purpose {that a} Home Office postmortem discovered he had died from stomach accidents so extreme that they had been described because the equal of him having been in a automobile crash.

In a sufferer affect assertion learn to the court docket on Thursday, Mr Hackett’s mom Christine Smith mentioned of the death of her son: “I wish to state that it has ruined my life and put me through hell.”

Nine youngsters had watched on, a few of whom filmed the violence, later sharing the footage on social media. The woman defendant was amongst these videoing the assault earlier than she joined in. The harrowing clip was circulated extensively, with police warning the general public to not share it.

DCI O’Keefe blamed the affect of social media at the least partially for the incident, pointing to the following widespread circulation of the violence on platforms, in addition to the “densensitisation” that social media can set off in individuals.

“The level of violence shown by these offenders was truly shocking and Mr Hackett must have been terrified throughout,” DCI O’Keefe mentioned. “Our thoughts are with his family who have understandably been left devastated by his death.

“This incident should serve as a warning to people – violence has consequences, and sometimes those consequences can be tragic. These three young people may not have intended to kill Mr Hackett, but that is ultimately what happened, and like Mr Hackett’s family, they will live with the consequences of their actions for the rest of their lives.

“No outcome can ever change what has happened, but I hope Mr Hackett’s family can now start to rebuild their lives after such a terrible ordeal.”

Paying tribute to Mr Hackett following the sentencing, his household mentioned in a press release: “We are devasted by John’s passing. We have lost a much-loved son, brother, nephew and cousin, taken from us because of a mindless act of violence. John was bullied and tormented for weeks leading to his tragic death. There isn’t a day goes by without us thinking of John and what he went through.

“We will never be able to forgive those involved.”

All three defendants had been handed detention and coaching orders, that are custodial sentences. The 16-year-old woman, from the Nuneaton space, was handed an 18-month sentence, whereas the 15-year-old boy, from Willencote, Staffordshire, was sentenced to two years, and the 16-year-old boy, from Nuneaton, was handed a two-year sentence.