Assault victim Derek holds no grudge

ASSAULT victim Derek Laidlaw

A 70-YEAR-OLD pensioner who was subjected to a sickening beating after having the courage to rebuke a "drunken thug" has said he is ready to forgive him after receiving a personal letter from the attacker.

Derek Laidlaw was left with a battered and bruised face, a broken nose and a smashed tooth after he was knocked to the ground and repeatedly pummelled by 46-year old Stephen Glynn.

Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court was told how Mr Laidlaw's partner Martha Jackson had feared he would have been beaten to death but for the intervention of a passing motorist who stopped to help.

Glynn, who gave himself up to police after a media appeal when he was recognised ironically by a friend of the family, was jailed for 15 months after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

In the letter to his victim, he said: "I did a very stupid and awful thing which I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

"I hope you can find it within yourself to forgive me."

Amazingly, after the hearing, Mr Laidlaw said he bore his attacker no grudge.

"He seems to be upset about it," said the pensioner. "We couldn't understand why anyone like that could go off the rails. I just think he should have had more sense at his age."

The court had been told how the attack happened on July 2 as Mr Laidlaw and his partner walked back to her home in Failsworth after going to a family celebration.

Mr Laidlaw, who was holding his partner's handbag while she unlocked the front door, spotted a pizza box on the bonnet of his car, then saw Glynn urinating against the gable end of the house.

Lisa Boocock, prosecuting, said the pensioner challenged him in jocular fashion, saying he would hit him with the handbag if he didn't move on.

To his amazement, Glynn, who the court was told was drunk and depressed, rounded on him, spinning him around and knocking him to the ground.

He pummelled his face repeatedly with both fists, kneeling or sitting astride him, and continued despite attempts by Mrs Jackson to pull him away.

So serious was the beating that he lost consciousness at one point.

The court was told that pictures showing Mr Laidlaw's horrific injuries were shown in newspapers and on TV, and Glynn was recognised by Mrs Jackson's son-in-law.

He was told to either contact police and admit he was the culprit, or the family would.

Mr Laidlaw described how his nose is now permanently misshapen as a result of the attack and he is still suffering the psychological effects including nightmares and flashbacks.

William Staunton, defending, said Glynn, of Massey Avenue, Failsworth, had until recently, been a right-thinking person and law-abiding citizen with absolutely no propensity for violence.

He had turned to drink however to drown his sorrows because of a family bereavement and depression.

He said Glynn had told him he would willingly have subjected himself to a good beating if it would help his victim.

Sentencing him, Recorder Peter Wright QC said: "You took out all your built up emotions on this utterly innocent man. This was an utterly unprovoked attack on an elderly and vulnerable man ­- an offence of the greatest harm."

He said particularly concerning was that it could have been anyone that became the subject of his ire on that night.

"It was so serious that only immediate custody is appropriate" he said. "The public must be reassured that they are safe to walk the streets."