Justice! Champ Watson’s joy as carjack gang jailed
FORMER boxing champion Michael Watson said justice was done after three men who attacked him were branded “modern highwaymen” by a judge and jailed for 16 years each yesterday.
Mr Watson, who was left suffering flashbacks and seizures after the violent carjacking last year, told of his relief that the men are now off the streets.
The 53-year-old, who was partially disabled after suffering a near-fatal brain injury during a fight with Chris Eubank in 1991, was dragged at least 150 yards along the road as robbers tried to steal the car he was travelling in.
Mr Watson told Snaresbrook Crown Court how he has been left feeling anxious and nervous since the attack in Chingford, east London, on February 16, 2017.
Punched
The former Commonwealth middleweight champion was a passenger in the Volkswagen Golf when it was shunted from behind.
Mr Watson’s friend and carer Lennard Ballack, who had been driving the car, was attacked by Paul Samuels, 31, who sprayed ammonia in his face.
Mr Ballack was then punched and kicked as the attack continued, now involving Simon Luck, 29, a second attacker.
Mr Watson, who was also sprayed with the liquid, was dragged along the road after becoming caught in his seat belt as Samuels drove at high speed.
The attackers eventually abandoned the carjacking.
Sentencing them, Judge Oscar del Fabbro said: “For all intents and purposes, you became modern highwaymen, outlaws.”
The pair and a third man, Anselm Legemah, 23, were also found guilty last week over an attack on a driver two weeks earlier in Loughton, Essex, also involving ammonia.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Watson said: “Since this ordeal I have suffered nothing but flashbacks. I have suffered from five or six physical seizures due to the stress.”
Telling of his state of anxiety, he added: “I feel sickened, mentally stressed, by what these people have done to me.”
Speaking outside court, Mr Watson said: “I’m very pleased they’re [the culprits] off the streets. “Justice has been served.” Luck and Samuels, both of east London, were found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery and applying a corrosive fluid with intent to burn, maim, disfigure or disable, or to inflict grievous bodily harm.
They were each sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Legemah, who was also jailed for 16 years, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit robbery and applying a corrosive fluid.