A driver who punched a refuse collector after a near miss with his bin lorry assembled a gang armed with an axe, sledgehammer, machete and gun before launching a vicious attack on a second crew.
Sickening footage shows the moment Joe Corden, 29, leapt from his Vauxhall Corsa to confront his first victim, raining blows on the driver and battering the van with a school crossing sign pulled from his boot.
High on codeine he returned to the Stoke-on-Trent suburb with his heavily armed gang before another brutal assault on a blameless crew.
The three men will be sentenced next month after admitting assault and three of their victims revealed they have been forced to retire due to the attack.
Victim impact statements were read in court this week, with one binman revealing he suffers flashbacks and nightmares since the attacks in March 2023 and another now trying to recover from a stroke.
‘I have since struggled with everyday tasks,’ said one operative who had a gun pulled on him.
‘I suffer with flashbacks and nightmares and am constantly looking over my shoulder. I finished work due to ill health and had worked for the council for 38 years.’
The driver assaulted in the first attack was punched in the face three times and required hospital treatment for head, face and foot injuries.
He returned to work in October 2023 after six months sick leave. However, he was forced to leave work due to sickness again in May 2024, and it is unlikely he will be able to return.
The shocking violence was sparked by a seemingly minor incident in which a Stoke-on-Trent City Council bin wagon and a car were involved in a near-miss in Birches Head.
In the video clip, captured on the lorry’s dashcam, Corden leaps from his vehicle and squares up to the crew of the Stoke-on-Trent City Council bin wagon.
He hauls open the door of the cab before raining blows on the driver’s head, but seconds later he is in retreat as three of the binman’s colleagues emerge from the vehicle.
Corden shoves one over a garden wall but disappears after another appears to punch him to the ground.
He is then seen grabbing a lollipop sign from the boot of his car and smashing it against the door of the lorry as it sets off back to the depot.
Shortly before noon video from a second bin lorry nearby shows Corden and his gang running towards it with weapons and one terrified binman leaping back into his cab as they approach.
A colleague is not quick enough and is set upon by the gang who beat him with sticks before one of the gang smashes out the lorry windows with an axe.
The gang make their escape, but not before Corden has aimed a few last blows with a hatchet through the cab window.
Corden, of Tellwright Street, Burslem, pleaded guilty to two charges of assault occasioning bodily harm, conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm with intent, two charges of wounding with intent, possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, damaging property, driving without a licence and also driving without insurance.
Jack Spackman, 25, of Beverley Drive, Bentilee, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm with intent, possession of an offensive weapon in public and criminal damage.
Kyle Worthington, 21, of Abbey Road, Abbey Hulton, pleaded guilty conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. He is also set to be sentenced for other unrelated matters including dangerous driving.
All three men were remanded in custody while the youth was sentenced to a three year youth rehabilitation order at an earlier hearing.
The case was adjourned, with Spackman and Worthington expected to be sentenced on February 7. Corden’s basis of plea is yet to have been accepted by the prosecution meaning that his case could be further adjourned.
