Vigilante yob jailed for beating freed sex offender with hammer outside Aldi before boasting to cops ‘I smashed a n***e’

A VIGILANTE yob has been jailed for battering a freed sex offender with a hammer before boasting to police: "I smashed a n***e".

Joshua Lea, 21, concealed the hammer in his sock when he approached the man in an Aldi car park.

The thug then battered the convicted sex offender around 20 times in his head and face as he tried to protect himself.

Lea then told police the attack was targeted, before adding: "I smashed a n***e".

He has now been jailed for 15 months after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon.

Swansea Crown Court was told the broad daylight attack took place in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on August 25.

Lea joined two other men in battering the victim, who was rushed to hospital before discharging himself.

The yob initially claimed he had "b***h slapped" the man in self-defence before changing his story.

Prosecutor James Hartson said the assault was “somewhat ironic” given Lea was a twice-cautioned sex offender.

He added: "The motivation of this assault is clearly revenge."

The court was told Lea has 12 previous convictions for 27 offences, including seven for violent offences.

Judge Geraint Walters told him if the victim had been more seriously injured, Lea would have faced up to eight years in jail.

He sentenced Lea to 12 months but added an additional three months after revoking an existing community order.

The judge said: "The courts over the years have given you one community order after another. And they have achieved absolutely nothing.

“You yourself have recognised that this is an opportunity for yourself to change.

“For once, you are getting some structured intervention in the prison which you were not getting in the community.”