Man jailed for attack in doctors’ surgery
ABRUTE who punched and stamped on a man during a ‘vicious’ attack at a Runcorn doctors surgery has been sent down.
James Wilson, 34, of Palacefields Local Centre, Runcorn, was sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Friday after being convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) at trial at North Cheshire Magistrates’ Court.
Prosecutor Mandy Nepal told the hearing how Wilson’s rage erupted on August 13 while his victim Richard Cumpsty was attending an appointment with his girlfriend at Hallwood Health Centre on Hospital Way.
They were leaving the surgery when they spotted Wilson, who seemed ‘agitated’ and ‘fixated’ on Mr Cumpsty while ‘ pacing up and down, huffing and puffing’.
Mr Cumpsty said Wilson was then ‘getting worked up and shouting ‘you’re dead, I’m going to f****** kill you’.’
The victim replied ‘no you’re not, go for a walk and calm down’ but Wilson threatened him again, pointing his finger at his face.
Miss Nepal said: “The defendant punched him to the face. The complainant describes being punched at least 10 times.
“He was knocked to the ground and the defendant was shouting ‘this is for the money’.”
Mr Cumpsty said he was ‘knocked out momentarily’ during the assault, being 5ft 9ins tall while his attacker was ‘stocky’ with a ‘powerful build’.
While prone, Wilson stamped on his hands, shoulder, side and his back – which bore a partial shoe print after the ordeal.
He suffered two black eyes, a misaligned or broken nose, and bruises to his arms and knee.
The attack also knocked out a tooth filling and caused intense pain and a two-centimetre laceration to the bridge of his nose.
His girlfriend Alexandra Matthews described seeing her boyfriend being stamped on several times and also Wilson grabbing him by the collar, ‘forcing him to the ground and trying to bang his head on the floor’.
She managed to put Mr Cumpsty in a taxi and they headed to Halton General Hospital’s urgent care centre.
The court heard the attack is believed to have been motivated by £40 that Wilson claimed an expartner of Mr Cumpsty’s owed him from two years ago.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Cumpsty said he underwent surgery to re-align his broken nose, and he lost £1,500 in earnings as he was off work for a week then a further three days following the operation.
He said he also felt ‘scared to leave the house’ after the attack.
Mark Lever, defending Wilson, disputed that Mr Cumpsty’s nose was broken because such an injury had not been noted in a nurse’s statement.
The defendant had also received a character reference from a friend.
Mr Lever said his client had ongoing health issues and leads a ‘rather isolated life’ which ‘centres around his flat which he fought to get’ after ‘living on the streets for quite some time’.
Wilson had now shown ‘shame’ and ‘remorse’ over the attack, he said.
The court heard the defendant had previous convictions for carrying an air weapon and ABH from 2000, possession of an offensive weapon in 2004.
His Honour Judge Patrick Thompson, sentenced Wilson to 18 months in prison, commenting that the aggravating and mitigating features balanced out.
He granted requests for restraining orders forbidding Wilson from contacting Mr Cumpsty or his partner for five years.
Sending him down he said: “It’s clear to me you’ve had some difficulties in the past and there may well be some mental health difficulties.
“If my sole purpose was what is best for you I could consider a community order, but this was a vicious attack.”
Wi l s o n waved to the public gallery before being sent down to the cells. ●