Attack could have been fatal - police
EXPLODES INTO VIOLENT RAGE IN PUB
A VIOLENT thug who repeatedly stamped on his unconscious victim before smashing a glass ashtray over his head has been jailed.
Faisal Ahmad, 43, had been chatting to a 50-year-old pal in the beer garden of a Newcastle pub in the moments before the attack.
The pair had been drinking at the Old George Inn on the Cloth Market before going outside for a cigarette.
But after they got involved in a drunken argument, Ahmad lost his temper and pushed his victim to the ground.
He then starting stamping on the man’s head, throwing it back onto the cobbled street and knocking him unconscious.
Ahmad then delivered two more kicks to his head before grabbing a glass ashtray from a table.
He smashed it into the back of the head of his knocked out victim before being ushered away by members of the public.
Emergency services were called and Ahmad’s victim was taken to hospital with serious injuries but miraculously suffered no lasting damage.
The 43-year-old was arrested by police following the assault in November and charged with wounding with intent.
However a week after the attack, Ahmad was arrested again after turning up at the victim’s home armed with a hammer.
At court Ahmad pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent. He also admitted witness intimidation and possession of an offensive weapon.
Now Ahmad has been jailed for a total of six years at his sentencing hearing at Newcastle Crown Court on August 28. Faisal Ahmad who has been jailed for the brutal attack outside a pub
Following the case, Det Con Keith Howells said the attack could have easily led to a fatality.
Det Con Howells, of Northumbria Police’s Central CID, said: “Having reviewed the CCTV I can confidently say that the victim could have been killed.
“We regularly talk to the public about how one punch can kill so he is fortunate that he has made a full recovery.
“The first blow knocked him unconscious, so for Ahmad to deliver repeated blows to his head shows how out of control he was.
“He is clearly a violent and dangerous offender so I am glad to see a judge hand down a significant custodial sentence.”
Ahmad was also handed an indefinite restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim. TWO grief-stricken sisters are calling on CCTV to be installed in all dementia care homes after a hip fracture led to the death of their mum.
Patricia Heslop was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 65 and was placed in Hebburn Court Dementia Nursing Care Home in South Tyneside after serious concerns were raised for her safety due her habit of wandering off.
As the disease progressed into latestage Alzheimer’s, the 75-year-old lost her ability to speak or communicate effectively and would often spend hours walking round the home, day and night.
When it became apparent at a visit that she was very lethargic and unable to get herself up and walk around, her daughters, Ashleigh Joachim, 47, and Lesley Haswell, 50, both of Sunderland, became increasingly concerned for her welfare.
An ambulance was called and their mum was admitted to hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with an impacted hip fracture requiring extensive hip replacement surgery.
But Patricia never recovered from her injuries and died five months later in palliative care.
Ashleigh and Lesley carried out an investigation using the care home’s own documentation and say it transpired that staff had been using a wheelchair to transport their normally fully mobile mother around the home over the hip fracture period, yet it was never mentioned to them during their numerous visits.
The sisters believed their mum had suffered a fall which had not been reported, with Patricia being assisted up from the floor then left to suffer in silence and in excruciating pain for five days before being taken to hospital at their request.
After undergoing a forensic post-mortem, a three-day inquest into her death by senior coroner Winter ruled Patricia died from the combination of natural causes and an unwitnessed fall which had resulted in a fractured right neck of femur.
The sisters say they were refused legal aid and were left with no option but to represent their mother’s case themselves at the inquest.
Coroner Derek Winter upheld the sisters’ view that Patricia had been assisted up from the floor without the fall having been reported, and left with undiagnosed injuries until her admission to South Tyneside NHS Hospital.
In a transcript from a recording of the inquest, he said: “The likelihood is that a member of staff has found Patricia in a fallen position or witnessed the fall and has not said anything. If that is true, that is reprehensible.”
Ashleigh and Lesley slammed the way their mother was treated by staff at the HC One Care-run home and say they have yet to receive an apology.
They are now campaigning for a specific charter to protect the human rights of dementia patients in memory of their beloved mother, under the campaign name I Still Matter Now.
Ashleigh said: “Dementia care is now massively underfunded and in a catastrophic state.
“The extent of this catastrophic state is being kept deliberately hidden from the general public. It is only when your loved one or family member develops dementia you are then thrust into the CORONER DEREK WINTER