Drug dealer punched victim with electrified knuckle duster

A drug dealer battered a man with an electrified KNUCKLE DUSTER which he had improvised to deliver a 5,000 volt shock, a court heard.

Evil Russell Higham, 33, fixed electric probes to the weapon which were attached by wires to a powerful battery he kept in his coat pocket.

He used the device to attack Neil Watkin, 30, after bursting into his home with two masked thugs on November 19 last year.

Watkin was knocked to the floor by an electric shock before Higham slashed him across the face with a six-inch kitchen knife.

He was left with a five-inch gash across his face running from his lip to his ear.

Higham was found guilty of wounding with intent when he appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court earlier this month.

Peter Arnold, prosecuting, said: ”He was attacked, first physically, then a weapon was used, a knuckleduster with a taser.

”It fits onto the hand but has two prongs which should give an electric shock.

”The defendant shouted to his friends for a knife, and set about the victim causing a number of stab and slash wounds.

”He could have been killed.”

The court heard Higham burst into Watkin’s flat with two masked thugs in a row over an outstanding drug debt.

Mr Arnold said: ”The victim lives in a second floor property, he is someone who is involved in class A drugs and was clearly part of the Shrewsbury drugs scene, as are the defendants and his friends.

”These men burst into the defendant’s flat and they burst in with such force to knock the door off its hinges.

”The attack took place in his bedroom – it was clearly a determined attack.

”Two of the men were masked up so he couldn’t see them, but he could see the third man who was this defendant.”

The court heard days before the attack, rumours had spread among the underworld in the town that Watkin had a large stash of heroin at his home.

Higham, from Upton Magna, Shrops., was remanded into custody and will be sentenced next month.