Cannabis growers took over a vulnerable man’s house to run their farm before viciously assaulting him, a court heard.
Brodie Allanson, 39, became the “brains of the operation” after Stephen Wallwork, who has since died, was invited into the victim’s home back in December 2020.
More than five years on, Bolton Crown Court heard how the man had meant for Wallwork to stay for a few days before he house on Crescent Road, Kearsley, was completely taken over.
William Donnelly, prosecuting, said: “He came home and discovered that his home address in Kearsley had been turned into a cannabis farm.”
He added: “He is something of a vulnerable individual.”
Mr Donnelly told the court how the victim was “understandably not happy about this” but that by May the following year his house was full of plants and cannabis paraphernalia.
He said: “Mr Allanson is described as the brains, if I can put it that way, of the operation.”
Mr Donnelly said the victim’s frustration grew until this came to a head at around 6.30pm on May 9 when Wallwork and Allanson came to the house together.
He said that they feared the victim may have ended up trying to remove the plants and so Allanson locked the door before Wallwork began to assault him.
Allanson joined in the assault, at one point putting him in a headlock, while Wallwork, believed to have been armed with a “homemade weapon or shank” injured him in the arm.
Mr Donnelly said two men more unknown to the victim arrived and joined in the assault while Wallwork and Allanson went upstairs.
The victim was eventually picked up by his stepson after the incident had lasted around 40 minutes.
Wallwork has since died at HMP Forest Bank at the age of 34 in 2024 while Allonson, of Chorley Road, Westhoughton, eventually pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He also confessed to production of cannabis.
Mr Donnelly said the scale of the cannabis farm and the fact Allanson had apparently invested £4,000 showed “it wasn’t a mum and pop operation if I can put it that way”.
Ben Berkson, defending, said Allanson deserved credit for his guilty plea and pointed to the “extraordinary delay” in dealing with the case.
He said that the incident had been a “tragic blot on his copybook” given the 39-year-old has no other convictions before or since.
Mr Berkson said that Wallwork had drawn Allanson into his crimes and that he had not known there was a knife involved in the assault.
Recorder Geoffrey Lowe said it was clear that the victim had been “victimised” and “manipulated” by Wallwork and that Allanson had been the “brain”.
But he said he accepted there was no evidence that Allanson had known about the knife or about the other two men who would arrive to “terrorise” their victim.
Recorder Lowe said: “Why you did it, only you will be able to work that out and explain.”
He sentenced Allanson to a year in prison, suspended for a year, and ordered him to complete 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days with 160 hours of unpaid work.
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