I can never work in my shop again, says owner who fought off raider

A SHOP owner who was stabbed in the neck bravely fought off his attacker with a snooker cue, saying he did not want to leave his newborn son without a father.

Radoslaw Buczynski, 29, was also knifed in the shoulder as he fended off the masked robber at his off-licence in Stratford.

Clinton Purcell, 30, marched into the Corner Food Store in Fairland Road with his hood up at 7pm on January 12. He pulled out a large kitchen knife and told the terrified businessman to put the cash from the till into a plastic bag, Snaresbrook crown court was told.

Mr Buczynski, whose only son was two months old at the time, told the Standard: “I was terrified, but I didn’t want to leave my son without a father and my wife without a husband.”

Mr Buczynski, who had only taken over the shop the previous summer, grabbed a snooker cue hidden beneath the till and hit the attacker over the head three times, smashing the stick in two, as he dodged the blade.

He said: “I thought he was coming after me to kill me. When he left I could feel I was losing a lot of blood and my neighbours called an ambulance.

“Doctors told me had the stab wound been inches lower it would have hit an artery and I would have died.

“It felt like I was in a horror film. I still feel terror and have nightmares.”

He said he is now planning to sell the shop: “I can never work in a shop again. When I’m here I always jump and am suspicious whenever someone comes into the store.

“I’m hoping to work in a restaurant in the city, somewhere that isn’t so isolated from other people.”

The court heard the raid was Purcell’s third robbery attempt that day.

Ninety minutes earlier he had walked into a Post Office in Forest Road, Walthamstow, and waved a knife at c ashier Mukilan Sinnaraso, before fleeing empty handed.

Purcell then made his way to William Hill bookmakers in Romford Road in Stratford and slipped his knife underneath the screen, demanding: “Give me all the money and no one will get hurt.” He again left with nothing.

Two weeks later, Purcell targeted Richard Miles Jewellers in Waltham Forest, throttling lone staff member Lata Dewchand and shouting at her: “Give me all your gold.” Ms Dewchand’s son intervened and suffered minor cuts and bruises as he tried to apprehend him.

Purcell was arrested shortly after and admitted charges of attempted robbery and unlawful wounding. He also admitted charges of assault with intent to steal and assault by beating. The court heard Purcell, from Birmingham, has 14 prior convictions for 16 offences. He was jailed this week for six years and eight months.