Stourbridge thug jailed after orgy of destruction (From Stourbridge News)

Stourbridge thug jailed after orgy of destruction

11:52am Friday 22nd March 2013 in News

A STOURBRIDGE thug who joined his brother for what a judge called an orgy of destruction has been jailed.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told Kieran Taplin, of Union Street, and his brother James caused nearly £10,000 worth of damage to a house in Amblecote before attacking a man living there with pick axe handles.

James and Kieran Taplin shattered the porch and front windows of the property in Lambourne Way before breaking windows in cars parked on the drive.

Then, when Kevin Foster came out of his home to protest, he was struck a number of glancing blows to the head and wrist.

David Swinnerton, prosecuting, said the trouble began after a heated dispute involving a mobile telephone between the Taplins' sister and another person in Stourbridge High Street.

She then went with 26-year-old James Taplin to the house in Lakeside where it was believed the other party lived and there was a confrontation between the pair and Mr Foster, who had not been involved in the earlier incident involving the mobile.

James Taplin was pushed to the ground and "humiliated" he returned minutes later with his 24-year-old brother Kieran and they began to smash windows in the house.

The brothers were arrested and bailed but just three months later Kieran Taplin assaulted a 15-year-old boy and a man.

During the same incident he caused £200 damage to a car after picking a fight with the teenager in Bridgnorth Road, Wollaston.

Mr Swinnerton said he punched the boy, kicked a dent in the wing of the BMW belonging to his father and then hit a good samaritan who tried to calm down the situation with a metal board, breaking his nose and damaging front teeth.

Kieran Taplin admitted criminal damage and assaulting the teenager and the man but he denied affray in the incident in Amblecote.

But a jury found him guilty on that charge after retiring to consider the evidence at the end of his trial and he was jailed for a total of 22 months.

Recorder Michael Stephens told James Taplin, of Hartlebury Road, Oldbury: "You were humiliated by being rebuffed and put to the ground by Mr Foster and you decided to step things up by returning with your brother to embark on an orgy of destruction with pick axe handles."

James Taplin admitted affray and criminal damage and was jailed for a total of 15 months.

Simon Hanns, for James Taplin, told the court his client was now looking to leave the area to make a fresh start on his release from custody.

Adam Western, for Kieran Taplin, said: "He was recruited into somebody else's fight by his older brother and he got involved through misplaced loyalty."