Man guilty of stabbing GP in face
A MAN has been found guilty of attacking a doctor outside a GP surgery, leaving his victim permanently disfigured.
Dean Heywood, 38, bragged he was offered £3,000 for the brutal assault in Whitefield, a court heard.
The doctor was pinned down and slashed across the face several times as he left Elms Medical Centre. He now has ‘highly visible’ scarring and suffers from daily panic attacks.
Heywood, from Whitefield, denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of a bladed article, but was found guilty by a jury following a three-day trial. He will be sentenced in August. Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard during the trial how his victim, a man in his 50s, has been left suffering from nightmares and daily panic attacks.
As the locum doctor was putting his briefcase in the boot of his car following a four-hour shift at the Elms Medical Centre in April last year, he was attacked by two men, with one wielding a knife.
He tried to defend himself by hitting the men with another briefcase.
But his efforts were in vain and one man pinned him to the ground, while the other attacked him with the knife.
He was ‘slashed a number of times’ to the face, as many as six or seven times.
“The objective was to disfigure, which was successful,” prosecutor Peter Cadwallader said.
The men ran off and got in a getaway car, a silver Vauxhall Astra, which was later found burned out nearby.
The doctor was seriously injured and rushed to hospital after shocked staff at the surgery went to his aid. His facial scarring is said to be ‘highly visible’ and ‘permanent.’
The court heard that the doctor claims that his ex-wife or a member of her family was behind the attack.
Prosecutors say they have found no evidence to prove this allegation.
The doctor said that his ex-wife has previously made ‘repeated allegations’ to the police and the General Medical Council, which he said were ‘fictitious’ and ‘unsubstantiated.’
Mr Cadwallader said: “He (the doctor) suggests his ex-wife or at least a member of her family as being behind the attack.
“It is not the case that the prosecution have any sufficient evidence other than suspicion to bring any charge against any members of that family.”
Jurors heard the doctor married his ex-partner in 2008, according to a statement from him read out in court.
Mr Cadwallader said the attack was not a robbery or committed because someone held a grudge against the doctor.
He said the offenders were ‘paid to carry out the attack.’ Heywood’s partner, who broke up with him the day before the attack, told police that the defendant said ‘he and others were following a doctor and that they had a job to do.’
She said that Heywood was ‘buzzing’ and ‘bragging,’ and ‘indicating that he had been or was to be paid £3,000 for his part in the assault.’
Heywood, of Rydal Grove, Whitefield, was arrested on May 8 after the woman was interviewed by police.