Machete attacker was clearing his drug debt when he carried out brutal assault

Curtis Fitzpatrick, and an unknown accomplice, both wore balaclavas as they used pepper spray to incapacitate their target before the defendant repeatedly slashed at the victim’s arm and leg with the large blade.

The victim’s partner, who was a nurse, ran from her nearby home on Lingdale Road, Thornaby, and applied a tourniquet to stem the blood flow.

The man was taken to Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital for emergency blood transfusions and surgery to repair the damage to the injuries caused by the brutal attack.

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Fitzpatrick had told Teesside Crown Court he was ordered to carry out the attack or suffer the same fate after he quit a university engineering degree course over his drug addiction and debts to the gang.

Curtis Fitzpatrick

Chris Baker, prosecuting, said that Fitzpatrick denied that he was the attacker despite the victim giving evidence to the jury that the victim recognised both of his attackers.

Before he was sentenced over a videolink from Durham Prison the defendant read out a statement to the judge saying that he had been forced into it and that he had been told to plead not guilty and to have a trial.

Fitzpatrick said that he has since apologised to the victim for the injuries that he caused.

The 24-year-old’s parents also wrote a letter to the judge saying that they were standing by him and that there was a better man behind the facade of his drug addiction

Judge Jonathan Carroll said that there was 'significant planning' behind the attack as he jailed him for eight years.

The judge added:”It was a grave and permanent injury.

“I have read your parents’ letter carefully, I have a huge amount of sympathy for your parents, they must have been at their wits’ end.

”Your drug addiction is no mitigation, it had caused you these problems.”

Fitzpatrick, of Thatch Lane, Ingleby Barwick, was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on January 8.

The defendant was given an indefinite restraining order banning him from contacting the victim who has been left permanently injured.

He was also banned from driving for five years after he pleaded guilty to driving the Nissan getaway car while disqualified.

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