A Sandys Parish man who caused permanent brain damage to a man he beat was sentenced to four years in prison yesterday.

The 38-year-old victim, Charles Christopher, is in St. Brendan's Hospital and according to doctors will never live a normal life. He will require 24-hour care.

Suja Amon Muhammad, 24, of Scott's Hill Road, pleaded guilty to the charge of causing grievous bodily harm in January in Magistrates' Court.

But Senior Magistrate Will Francis said he believed his sentencing powers were not sufficient to deal with the gravity of the offence and so Muhammad was sent to the Supreme Court for sentencing.

The court heard how Muhammad had asked the victim to purchase marijuana for him and gave him $50. Christopher, however, never returned with the drugs and half an hour later Muhammad went looking for him.

He found Christopher smoking cocaine near the Il Palio restaurant in Somerset and asked for the money he had given him. Christopher reportedly said he would explain, but did not and Muhammad hit him.

He continued to punch Christopher and then kicked him in the abdomen and about the head until Christopher became unconscious.

The owner of the Il Palio restaurant saw what was happening and telephoned Police. Muhammad continued to kick Christopher with such force that his unconscious body was propelled four feet along the ground.

Muhammad then dragged Christopher to a trash receptacle and tried to pick him up and throw him into it. At this point Police arrived and Muhammad dropped Christopher, who was bleeding profusely from the head, and ran away.

Police chased Muhammad and eventually caught him.

Muhammad admitted the offence and said: "He stole my money. I'm tired of this'', and beat him up.

He also said: "I was trying to teach him a lesson. He was trash and I wanted him to wake up in trash.'' Christopher, who had been taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital by ambulance, suffered a broken skull, a broken jaw, broken nose, broken eye sockets and bleeding in the brain.

Doctors provided a series of reports outlining Christopher's head injuries and concluded that there was little chance of recovery. Christopher's condition was further complicated by underlying schizophrenia.

Lawyer Richard Hector, representing Muhammad, asked the court to take into consideration that his client had an unimpressive criminal history consisting of convictions for petty crimes such as offensive behaviour and escaping lawful custody.

Mr. Hector also pointed out that his client was married with three children and was concerned about his family, since he had to close down his barber business because he has been in custody since last December.

Other mitigating factors were Muhammad's cooperation with authorities, his remorse over the incident, the fact that he was "a religious man'' and that the offence was completely out of character for him.

Muhammad addressed the court, promising he would never again appear before a court.

Chief Justice Austin Ward in rendering the sentence of four years, told Muhammad he was lucky he had not been charged with attempted murder as this was a very serious case of grievous bodily harm.

Mr. Ward also ordered that Muhammad be given psychological counselling for stress management during his incarceration.