Attack victim left for dead tells of brutal street assault
A MAN left for dead after a sickening street attack has told how he has no memory of the assault.
Carl Johnson, whose parents live in Marsden, suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain when he was set upon in Rochdale town centre earlier this month.
He’s now told of his fears that as his attackers are still walking free he could ‘bump into them and not even know it.’
The 25-year-old, who had only moved to the town a few months earlier, spent five days in hospital after the unprovoked attack, which took place in early hours of Sunday, August 13, following the Rochdale Feel Good Festival.
Carl, a warehouse operative in Rochdale, said he went to meet friends from work to watch Razorlight headline the free concert.
But when was unable to contact them he went to the pub before getting some food and making his way home.
Police believe he was attacked by three men and a woman as he walked along Drake Street.
They knocked Carl to the floor before punching and kicking him as he lay defenceless on the ground.
The attackers are then said to have fled in the direction of Manchester Road.
Carl, who also broke a finger, suffered a suspected fractured jaw and has lost the hearing in his left ear following the attack, was found badly injured by paramedics at 1.50am and taken to Royal Oldham Hospital, before being moved to a specialist brain injury unit at Salford Royal Hospital.
He said: “I couldn’t get hold of the guys from work so went for a drink in Wetherspoons, then I think I went for another drink in a different pub and that is the last thing I remember.
“The next thing I knew I was in hospital on Sunday morning.”
Carl’s brother Mark had previously told the Manchester Evening News he believed the assault was a homophobic attack.
But Greater Manchester Police has since said they are not treating it as a hate crime and Carl, who is now recovering at his parents’ home in Marsden, says he has no idea why he was targeted.
Carl added: “Police say it was