BOXING HERO VOWS TO MEET ACID ‘DEMONS’
30 Sunday Mail Boxing hero Michael Watson has vowed to meet his acid attackers – but is not ready to forgive them.
The ex- Commonwealth champion was sprayed with ammonia and dragged for 500m from his carer’s car during a botched robbery.
On Friday – 27 years to the day since Watson suffered a near- fatal brain injury during a fight with Chris Eubank – he saw the culprits jailed for a total of 54 years.
Simon Luck, 29, and Paul Samuels, 31, were jailed for 16 years each for conspiracy to carry out carjackings.
Yesterday, Watson, 53, branded them “demons” but said he hoped to “inspire” them to change by confronting them in jail.
He also called for acid attackers to serve mandatory life sentences.
He said: “I felt quite sorry for them. They never had a chance. If I had grown up in their position I wouldn’t have achieved what I had. I wouldn’t have been able to utilise my talent.
“I’d like to visit them in jail because I would ask them why they had chosen this path.
“I’d want to encourage them, give them inspiration. They need to be led on the right path, we need to give them role models.”
Michael and his carer Lennard Ballack, 56, were treated in hospital after the incident in Chingford, Essex, in February last year.
He said: “I’d tell them: ‘Don’t give up hope, believe in yourselves.’ They need to respect themselves.
“But I still can’t forgive them. I could have been left blind. What they did, they are monsters, demons.”
They are already great, of course, and their stories reveal the kind of selflessness, drive, dedication and passion that make our country great too.
Through their charity work and devotion to improving the lives of others, all four finalists have played a pivotal role in their own communities.
Jill McArthur, chair of Specsavers in Scotland, said: “We are proud to be supporting and sponsoring the search for the Sunday Mail Community Champions. The