Jailed, father and daughter who battered man off train
A FATHER and daughter have been jailed after beating a train passenger who suffered a “life-changing” brain injury.
A court heard Michael and Hayley Friel were travelling home when the door to a lavatory cubicle was opened while she was in there.
Her furious father questioned other passengers to try to find who had opened it after she was left “exposed and embarrassed”.
Michael Friel, 58, who was jailed on Thursday for two years, then became “intimidating and threatening”, Chester Crown Court was told.
Passenger James Clarke said he was to blame – even though he did not open the door – to try to calm the father and deflect attention from the person responsible, a woman sitting near the lavatory.
After trying to calm her father, Hayley Friel, 35, then slapped Mr Clarke. He tried to laugh it off but she continued to hit him with her palms.
The court heard her father began punching Mr Clarke, is in his 50s, who was “trapped in a corner”. When the train from Liverpool pulled into Runcorn, Cheshire, where the pair live, the doors opened and Michael Friel punched Mr Clarke again, causing him to fall from the carriage. He hit his head on a bench or the ground.
He went to hospital with no apparent injuries but within days needed surgery for a traumatic brain injury which led to epilepsy. More than 18 months after the attack, he cannot walk 100 yards unaided and remembers nothing of the attack because of his “life-changing injuries”.
Michael Friel pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and Hayley Friel, who was convicted of the same charge, received a 28-month jail sentence.
Recorder Michael Duck QC said he accepted the remorse of the pair was “genuine”.
Gareth Roberts, defending Hayley Friel, said she thought she had been a victim of a “cruel prank”.