'Primal Instincts? You acted like wild animals' judge tells Wolverhampton thugs who smashed up home and cars with hammer
Two thugs who used a hammer and crowbar to smash up cars and windows at the home of a terrified man and his 82-year-old mother have narrowly avoided jail.
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Tre Humphries and Salvatore Gambone, both of Wolverhampton, took weapons to the house in Horsehay, Telford, after a row between residents and a support group the two men were part of.
Prosecutor Fahad Gazge told Telford Magistrates Court that the pair were part of a men’s mental health support group named Primal Instincts, whose members meet at 6am on weekends to submerge themselves in water and "chant".
"They regularly meet up at a location and they take part in cold water therapy, they chant," Mr Gazge told the court on Wednesday (May 7).
"One of the locations for this is Simpsons Pool in Horsehay, which is adjacent to the victim's property."
The court heard complaints had been made about the noise and behaviour of the group. On one occasion, around 30 cars belonging to Primal Instincts members were allegedly damaged during one of their meetings.
No evidence of that damage was presented but the court heard that Humphries, 29, and Gambone, 27, decided to target the victim's house on September 28 last year.
They took a hammer and a crowbar to a Toyota Avensis and a Suzuki Jimny parked outside and to windows at the front of the house. The victim, who rushed to the front of the house when he realised what was happening, got glass from one of the broken windows in his eyes.
Humphries and Gambone ran away and the victim went to check on his terrified mother, who suffers from dementia and Parkinson's disease and who he cares for.
Meanwhile, a police officer who happened to be in the area at the time spotted two males, one of them later identified as Gambone, exiting a car and placing a hammer in the boot.
The PC followed the vehicle before it was stopped and searched. The hammer and crowbar were found inside and Humphries and Gambone were arrested.
The pair had even recorded themselves carrying out the attack, despite making efforts to hide their identity with face coverings and gloves.
