TWO men who shared photographs of a dying man after they had severely beaten him have been jailed for a minimum of 17 years.
Ryan Burey and Craig Hardy carried out a sustained, violent assault on defenceless Adam Chawla after a row broke out over a stolen bike.
The 27-year-old suffered multiple injuries when he was kicked, punched, and stamped on by the pair before he was left unconscious for several hours without medical attention.
A third man, Naeem Iqbal, was jailed for three years after he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and also assisting an offender after he lied to emergency services when he eventually contacted them.
Hardy, 41, of Cambridge Road, Thornaby and 30-year-old Burey, of Wembley Way, Stockton, had both denied murder.
In a powerful victim impact statement, Mr Chawla’s mother said: “As a family we have had to go through the most unbearable heartbreak and pain since Adam’s life was taken from him.
“It didn’t feel real at first. We had to go to the hospital and see Adam laid there covered in injuries, with his face swollen and bruised, and hooked up to a life support machine.
“It is an image we will never erase from our memory.”
Judge Paul Watson QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, sentenced Burey and Hardy to a minimum term of 17 years after they both carried out the brutal attack on their defenceless victim inside Iqbal’s Stockton home in February this year.
Addressing Hardy, the judge said: “After the attack, you left the premises regardless of the fact it was obvious that Adam was in a really bad way.
“You didn’t call for any ambulance, you didn’t summon any help at all and you didn’t call Burey to check on how he was – you did precisely nothing.”
Turning his attention to Burey, the judge said: “You remained at the scene, like Hardy, you did nothing at all to help Adam as he was lying semi-conscious at first and then unconscious, dying on the living room floor of the house where the attack took place.
“You knew just how serious he was hurt, there was no need for you to take photographs of his moribund body on the floor and send them to Hardy.”
He said it will never be known if Adam would have survived had they called for help.
Finally, sentencing Iqbal, of Eleanor Place, Stockton, he said: “The offence you were trying to cover up was the most serious offence, it was an offence which turned out to be murder, although you weren’t to know he wouldn’t survive the injuries he suffered.”
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