A gun-toting thug who left a man with knife wounds in his face and legs in a vicious, unprovoked attack faces jail.

Louis Browning, 25, was one of a group of men who attacked a man in his 30s near a white van in Vickers Close, Wallington, between 2.30am and 3am on March 12.

The gang set upon the man outside the van then dragged him into the vehicle to continue the assault. During the attack the victim was beaten with a shotgun, stabbed in the legs and had his face slashed. He was also robbed of his mobile phone, keys and trousers.

Browning's Mollison Drive home was searched days after the attack and armed police uncovered a foot-long, 12-bore, double barrelled sawn-off shotgun hidden in a ceiling void and accessed via a gap in an airing cupboard.

Officers also recovered two live cartridges and a gas-powered air pistol from the house.

Browning was arrested and told police he did not know about the robbery, a shotgun and even claimed he did not know where Vickers Close was.

But, having pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm, he was found guilty of having a firearm with intent to endanger life, grievous bodily harm, robbery and false imprisonment following a six-day trail at Croydon Crown Court that ended yesterday.

Browning will be sentenced at the same court on Friday, October 18.

 

TODAY'S TOP SUTTON STORIES