A TEENAGER who joined in a savage 2018 Christmas Day street attack on a Good Samaritan has narrowly avoided being locked up for this year’s festive period.
Victim David MacCallum was chased up Carlisle’s Botchergate after trying to help a female he saw arguing with three men in the early hours.
At English Street, one of the men began an attack which saw Mr MacCallum confronted, pushed into the main road and then repeated punched to the head.
Shocking CCTV footage played at the city’s crown court today (FRI) showed a second man, 19-year-old Jordan Lee Williamson – who also punched Mr MacCallum once – deliver a sickening kick to the face as he lay prone.
The disgusted female helped involve the police, saying: “I’m not about to stand there and see someone get flogged by two guys.”
Mr MacCallum was treated in hospital and initially thought to have suffered brain injury, receiving concussion, cuts and bruises. He missed 11 weeks’ work, and later described the ongoing impact and his fears of initially having no feeling below the neck.
“When I see my scars it makes me want to cry. I know I’ve been lucky,” Mr MacCallum stated. “I went through the mental torture of thinking I was going to be permanently disabled and not able to walk again.”
John Smith, defending, said of “quite drunk” Williamson, who admitted actual bodily harm assault: “He feels genuinely and thoroughly ashamed.” Discharged by the Army after a short spell, he hoped to join up again.
In view of the teen’s tender age, admissions and lack of other offences, Judge Peter Davies suspended a 20-month jail term for two years. Williamson, previously of Borrowdale Gardens, Carlisle, must complete a six-month night-time curfew and 250 hours’ unpaid work.
“That’s disgusting. Savage, wicked, mean and low,” Judge Davies said of the attack. “This fellow could have died with blows like that to the head.”