'Depraved' trio robbed Sheffield school boys and forced them to abuse each other for 'entertainment'
The lives of two Sheffield school boys were ‘changed forever’ when a twisted trio robbed them, before forcing their terrified victims to abuse each other as they were beaten, humiliated and filmed.
During the course of the two-hour ordeal John Doman, then aged 15, and his two accomplices, Defendant B and C, then aged 12 and 14, respectively, subjected their victims to, the seriousness of the acts they were made to carry out under threat of violence continued to escalate.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how after the two victims, Boy A and Boy B, had been robbed, beaten and humiliated, they asked their attackers for an explanation.
Doman, formerly of Archer Gate, Loxley, Sheffield, provided the chilling response: “I’m doing this for my entertainment,” his sentencing hearing on January 27, 2025 was told.
Judge David Dixon described the case as one of the most ‘depraved’ he had ever ‘encountered’ in his professional career.
‘Gratuitous violence and depraved behaviour of the worst order’
Jailing Doman, now aged 18, for three-and-a-half years, Judge Dixon told him: “This was gratuitous violence and depraved behaviour of the worst order.
“It’s hard to believe this is real, it’s hard to believe people can come up with, can force through this sort of activity. They were begging for it to stop, they were begging to be released.
“They asked you why, you responded: ‘I’m doing this for my own entertainment’. Of all the replies that can be given, that is beyond comprehension.”
The boys feared they would not survive the attack, in spite of Doman’s claim that his group were ‘not after a M charge,’ seemingly referring to murder.
Defendants B and C, who cannot be named due to reporting restrictions protecting their identities until they turn 18, were both sentenced at youth court in September 2024. They each received non-custodial sentences.
The incident, dating back to the evening of March 17, 2022, began after the attacking group cornered Boy A and Boy B - along with a third boy who subsequently managed to escape - as they were travelling together on a Sheffield bus route after enjoying a game of football with friends after school.
The trio of perpetrators - who committed the offences on a joint enterprise basis and have been deemed equally culpable - then threatened to beat the boys if they did not get off the bus at the next stop, prosecutor, Kitty Colley, told the court.
Doman rattled something in his pocket, which the boys feared may potentially be a knife, but no such weapon was ever produced or recovered, the court heard.
Boy A, then aged 14, and Boy B, then aged 15, along with their friend complied with the group’s request and got off at the next stop, after which time they were taken to a nearby alleyway.
One of the group held out a baton and said: ‘Give us your money and everything you’ve got,’ and the group proceeded to punch and kick Boys A and B, before taking their iPhones.
Boys A and B were kicked and punched and struck with a belt, a baton and a metal bar found in a nearby skip.
Boys A and B, both of whom are entitled to lifelong anonymity, were also made to kiss their attackers’ shoes, Ms Colley said.
Twisted videos taken and posted to social media
The court was played two videos taken by the 12-year-old assailant, Defendant B, in which Boy A and Boy B were mocked, humiliated and laughed at as they complied with the group’s abhorrent requests.
The videos, taken as a sick souvenir, were also briefly posted to the Snapchat social media platform, the court heard.
While Doman could not be seen in the videos, his voice, which was identified by Boys A and B, could be heard.
Judge David Dixon said the ‘pain and suffering’ Boys A and B were forced to endure was made clear from their distressed demeanour and behaviour in the videos.
The trio also forced the boys to fight each other, telling the terrified teens that whichever of them won would be the one to walk away, Ms Colley said.
“Having forced them to carry out that sort of activity, that wasn’t enough, you then forced them to fight each other, with the idea that they might be allowed to go if they were the winner. The two boys were desperate by this stage,” Judge Dixon told Doman.
He continued: “It’s justified to make you see, to understand, to feel the terror you caused in getting someone to fight their friend.”
The incident, which initially took place in two alleyways, after the friend of Boys A and B managed to escape, and raise the alarm with police, through his parents.
“It seems, as a result of [him] making off, you became concerned that the police would become involved…you took them to a park.”
“They were corralled and marched so they couldn’t escape.”
‘What started as a get together with a game of football turned into my worst nightmare’
Ms Colley told the court that it was only when Boy B began to ‘bleed heavily,’ after being hit to the head with a metal bar that the incident finally came to an end, when the defendants fled the scene.
Boys A and B initially made what Judge Dixon described as a ‘pact’ to omit the sexual coercion from the accounts they gave to their parents and the police, but the full horror of what they endured was eventually disclosed.
In addition to the boys’ phones, Doman, Defendant B and Defendant C also took a smart watch and a number of other items during the course of the incident.
In gut-wrenching statements read to the court, the victims described the way in which they have worked to rebuild their lives in the 34 months since their horrific ordeal.
Both boys said their mental health has deteriorated significantly and they have felt too traumatised to use public transport due to the way in which they were cornered on the bus at the start of the incident.
They both revealed how they feared reprisals towards them and their families from the defendants.
The boys also detailed the devastating impact of having to watch the videos taken by Defendant B, as they prepared themselves to give evidence at trial following initial denials from all three defendants.
“It’s made my life very difficult,” said Boy A, adding: “I can’t be alone due to the threats they made and what they said would happen.”
Boy A says he has been plagued by nightmares, flashbacks, sleep paralysis and has lost friends because he is no longer able to go out or socialise with the same confidence.
“March 17 was the day my life changed forever. It started as a get together with a game of football, and turned into my worst nightmare,” Boy B told the court through his statement.
He continued: “I had a good group of friends, I was doing well at school, I had just celebrated my 15th birthday. Life was good”
Boy B described how, following the attack, he missed school as he tried to come to terms with what had happened.
He did not get the GCSE grades he was predicted, as the traumatising ordeal took its toll, and he found it more difficult to get an apprenticeship than he had been expecting.
Boy B did go on to obtain an apprenticeship, but developments in the court proceedings for his three attackers set him back and resulted in him taking time off; and he was consequently dismissed from apprenticeship. Boy B is still struggling to find work, and to support his mother, who is a lone parent.
Guilty pleas
Doman pleaded guilty to numerous offences in connection with the March 2022 incident, including robbery and six counts of offender under 18 causing and or inciting a boy aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity at an earlier hearing.
Doman was due to be sentenced with his two co-accused, both of whom also pleaded guilty to the charges they faced, at youth court in September 2024. Doman was just a matter of days away from turning 18 at the time of the hearing.
The presiding district judge felt his sentencing power was too limited, however, and sent Doman to Sheffield Crown Court to be sentenced, the court heard.
Doman was also brought before the court to be sentenced for another robbery involving a car jacking committed as part of a group, also involving Defendant B, in September 2023, an offence of being carried in a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent as part of the same incident, along with an aggravated vehicle taking charge dating back to August 2023.
Ms Colley told the court that Doman has relevant previous convictions, including one for robbery, for which he received a referral order in youth court just a day before committing the offences against Boys A and B.
Attacker’s ‘unsuitable upbringing’
Defending, Sam Roxborough said Doman had expressed his remorse through his guilty pleas, and suggested that what may be seen as an attempt to minimise his offending, in reports prepared for the court, is actually an expression of someone who is ‘ashamed’ of their actions.
Doman had an ‘unsuitable upbringing’ involving exposure to familial criminal behaviour, as well as trauma and loss, Mr Roxborough told the court. He described Doman as someone who is ‘susceptible’ to negative peer influences, which, he suggested, have rendered him ‘particularly vulnerable’.
Mr Roxborough suggested the entirety of Doman’s criminal history, running from August 2021 to September 2023, was committed at a time of great ‘psychological stress,’ and said the fact he has not committed any further offences in the intervening period is of great signficance.
Mr Roxborough told the court that in the 16 months since Doman’s last offence, he has worked to ‘remove himself’ from the peers who have negatively influenced him, and has responded well to work with the youth justice service as part of his referral order.
Doman has been in work since November 2023 and has been responding well to the opportunity, Mr Roxborough said, adding that Doman has also successfully adhered to the conditions of an onerous curfew order.
He suggested that should Doman be sent to prison, it would send a message to him that his hard work in the months since his last conviction was ‘for nothing,’ and would expose him to individuals who are ‘more criminally entrenched’.
Mr Roxborough also branded the decision for Doman to be sentenced at Crown Court following his 18th birthday, when his anonymity would no longer be protected, to be an ‘egregious’ one, and meant there was no ‘parity’ between his treatment, and that of his co-accused.
‘Truly awful and appalling offending’
Judge Dixon said Mr Roxborough’s assertion concerning the loss of Doman’s anonymity ‘carried little weight’ because ‘this is the sort of case where the public would be entitled to know his name in any event’.
Judge Dixon said he had taken Doman’s mitigation, along with the extensive delay in the case reaching court, into account, but concluded that his ‘truly awful and appalling offending’ was so serious that only immediate custody could be justified.
In addition to jailing Doman for three-and-a-half years, he also granted life-long restraining orders, prohibiting him from ever contacting Boy A and Boy B. Doman was also told he will be required to register as a sex offender in due course.
29/01/25: This is a revised version of the original article.