Complaint Police reopen probe into vicious attack on city priest
AVON and Somerset police have confirmed they are reopening an investigation into a vicious attack on a Bristol priest, after he complained they had done nothing to find the man who beat him up.
Father Colin Mason was left with a fractured eye socket, cuts and bruises after he was assaulted as he tried to shut down a private party at his church hall in August.
He was bundled out of the hall by four men and one started beating him up on the ground, leaving him covered in blood and badly injured.
But even though police arrived quickly and shut the party down, and he was treated in hospital for his injuries, the Catholic priest said little was then done by the police to track down the man who left him a bloodied mess.
After a couple of weeks, he called the police to ask how the investigation was going, only to be given a crime reference number, and then a couple of days later, he was told the investigation had been closed.
He said he lost faith in the police, because they didn’t even start an investigation in the first place to then close it – so he made a formal complaint to Avon and Somerset Constabulary about their handling of the attack.
That now appears to have worked, and he told the Post he has now been contacted again by the police who told him they would be reopening the case and starting to try to find out who it was who beat him up.
“It wasn’t like a random attack, this was a guest at a private event so the people there, including the people who booked the hall, would know who the four men who bundled me out of the hall and the one man who hit me,” he told the Post.
The Newman Hall, a community church hall behind Father Colin’s Sacred Heart Church in Westburyon-Trym, was booked for the private party on August 20 this year, with an agreement that the event there would stop at 10pm.
When it didn’t and loud music was still going at 11pm, Father Colin went down to ask the organisers to close down the party.
“There wasn’t even an escalation,” said Father Colin. “It went straight from me turning up there and asking someone to turn the music down to four men bundling me out of the door, dragging me onto the grass and one of them started hitting me.
“I’ve never been hit before in my adult life – I haven’t been punched in the face since I was 16 at school. It came out of nowhere, it went from nothing to ultra violence in an instant. There was no negotiation before or anything,” he said.
“I called 999 and the police came very quickly and were brilliant there and then – they shut the party down, cleared everyone out, and handed me the keys. I went to hospital and they cleaned me up but an x-ray showed I had a fractured cheekbone.
“I’m still affected today – the bruising has gone but I’ve still got this scarring around my eye,” he added.
Expecting the police investigation to find out which of the party guests had beaten him up to be fairly straightforward, Father Colin said he was surprised that the police appeared not to have done anything in the weeks after the attack.
More than a month later, he was told ‘the case has been closed.’
“Obviously I want the police to find this man, but mainly because I don’t want him to do this to anyone else. He’ll be thinking now that he can just beat someone up and absolutely nothing will happen to him, he’ll get away with it, so next time he decides to be violent, there will have been no consequences,” said Father Colin.
After he logged an official complaint, Avon and Somerset police said they acknowledged and a review was to be undertaken. Father Colin said a senior police officer spoke to him yesterday and confirmed the investigation would be reopened.
“Things have moved forward with the police, which is positive. Hopefully now they can take action,” he added.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset police said: “Avon and Somerset police received a formal complaint about this incident on October 13.
“The complaint has been assessed and formally recorded by our Professional Standards Department.
“It has been allocated to the area patrol inspector, who is reviewing the service provided. We cannot comment further until that review has been concluded and the complainant updated.
“In terms of the investigation we’d ask anyone with information about what happened to call 101 ref 5221 192 357,” he added.
❝I’ve never been hit before in my adult life. It came out of nowhere, it went from nothing to ultra violence in an instant
Father Colin Mason