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Attack terror on bus
Reporter: COURT REPORTER
Date online: 19 May 2010
Yobs pounce on random passenger
vicious thugs beat a stranger who was alone on a bus and left him with a fractured skull — simply because he didn’t have a cigarette.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard how ringleader Michael Aspin (18), of Derwent Drive, Shaw, boarded the No.83 double-deck bus with two pals and sat beside Paul Gaskell (25), harassing him for a cigarette.
When Mr Gaskell said he didn’t have one, Aspin — who had been drinking — became aggressive and shouted: “Do you know who I am?”
One of Aspin’s friends, a 17-year-old father-of-one who cannot be named for legal reasons, tried to restrain him, but Aspin then lashed out at Mr Gaskell, punching him repeatedly.
The court was told how Mr Gaskell, who was hospitalised for three days after the attack, tried to defend himself by hitting out at Aspin. But Aspin, his teenage pal and Joshua Sumner-Stagg (18), of Suffolk Street, Werneth, dragged Mr Gaskell to the floor.
Aspin continued to rain down punches, and repeatedly kicked and stamped on his victim’s head, fracturing his skull and jaw in the process.
As Mr Gaskell tried to escape, he was dragged back by Aspin who continued to assault him before he was finally able to get off the bus. Yesterday, Aspin — who has previous convictions for attempted robbery and aggravated vehicle taking — smirked in the dock as he was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Sumner-Stagg was sent to a young offenders’ institute for 12 months. The third thug received a two-year community rehabilitation order, with supervision and a six-month night-time curfew. Both had pleaded guilty to assault. Mr Gaskell suffered from a pre-existing condition of epilepsy migraines but rarely suffered any symptoms before the attack at 10.30pm on January 18.
Following the attack he suffered from crippling headaches at least twice a week which left him bedridden and unable to move.
Mr Gaskell had also been diagnosed with an overactive thyroid. The court heard that, had one of the blows hit his throat, it could have been fatal.
Speaking outside court, Mr Gaskell, a former bus cleaner, said, “I’m pleased with the result but it should never have happened in the first place.
“I was just thinking I need to do anything to get out. The attack has made me much more wary of wherever I am going, I’m always looking over my shoulder.
“I just don’t understand why they did it, what was the point?”
Detective Constable Ian Webb said, “This was a random and violent attack on a man who was doing nothing other than minding his own business.
“The level of assault was sickening with repeated stamps to the victim’s head while he was on the floor.
“The severity of this assault has been reflected in today’s sentence and I hope this will now help the victim move on from this appalling incident.”
Comments
This is a shocking story and all credit to the authorities for this prosecution. I hope that the victim recovers in full and that the thugs have a hard time in jail with their their future benefits not being unpaid. They deserve nothing. Travelling on buses is becomming a dangerous occupation - bring back conductors!
Old enough to have a kid at 17, but not old enough to be named and shamed!?
Disgusting. 18 years old and all he knows is theft and assault,what a waster. He needs taking off the streets for good, never mind the poor sentence of what will ultimately be 24 months.
Why didnt the bus driver stop the bus?
This scum should be flogged publicly, then sterilised so they are not able to pass there twisted genes on to some poor child, that will have the misfortune of having these scumbags as role models. Animals are put down for less!!!!
I cant believe the sick world we live in today, when a human being cant go any were these days minding there own business. Our town has gone to the dogs. what the youth of today needs is to be punished by giving them national service,and make sure they get to the front line,
I have grown up in Oldham all my life and know that this town isnt as freindly as what it once use to be.
People should deserve a second chance. and being noted as scum is wrong people make mistakes and learn from them michael josh and the other boy are not bad people they wer drunk no excuse i know but i know all of them people personaly and josh is my partner. i know that they are all sincere about wot the did and people like u lot should know that mistakes are made. you call them scum i say ur scum! Miss rigby (love you josh sumner stagg x)
sorry miss rigby, but youre deluded.
I've been drunk many times, but i've never never never battered another human being just because i felt like it.
What if this poor man had been a relative of yours? would you be pleading for a second chance for your 'wonderful' boyfriend and his mates if so?
i do agree that most people deserve a second chance....if they earn it....but shall we wait and see if your boyfriend and his scumbag mates actually earn it before we just give it em as a 'right'
yes all these idiots should be put on an island, with no police n and let them knock eachother to bits, see how they like it
john sedgewick
disgusting filth !
I quote "SMIRKING IN COURT" enough said "SCUM"
They are scum with out doubt and according to Goddess regarding a second chance she is dreaming!
They should both have been given at least 10 years for what they did and are very lucky indeed not to have been facing a murder charge.
This is just another example of the sorry sad state of the society we live in today
Goddess, Aspin had previous convictions. How many second chances does he need? And if he was so sincere, why was he smirking? Does he realise he could have killed someone!?
In all the years I've been drunk, not once have I felt the urge to stamp on someone's head. There is absolutely no excuse for their behaviour, and as adults they should have been sent to an adult prison, not a holiday camp for naughty immature boys.
Of course they are scum,three scumbags attack an innocent
passenger for the simple fact that he didnt have a cigarett
e,and they are not bad people?get real Miss Rigby and if you decide to spend your future with this low life,i was going to say man but he is'nt is he? be very careful.
Davos.
Were there any other passengers on the bus who could have come to the aid of this man? What was the driver doing? Doesn't the bus company have some responsibilty to ensure the safety of passengers?
MarkH - "In all the years I've been drunk..." That's one serious binge, my friend, and partly explains some of your Latics comments!
Goddess - Stay with him and you will probably get some of his 'tough love' yourself one day.
Bring all your comments together and stick a cherry on top! Goddess, how naive, fickle and ignorant can you get?? Precisely android, national service is the key, or indeed an adult prison where the real 'bad boys' are! where nobody will know 'who he is' Fool!
Our sympathy should go out to Miss Rigby - for one pint too many, she'll be next - but i'm sure he woudln't hit a woman, that would be cowardly, as opposed to
three against one which is the mark of a man.
Bear in mind that four years really means two. Yes people do deserve a second chance, but to commit such a violent assault like this necessitates a deserved punishment and I don't think they have received one.
I have mentioned this before in the Chron, but this case deserves it, take the offenders, strip them to the waist, restrain them on a frame, give at least 4 strokes of a fresh birch, not more than 6 ozs. end of story, re offrending rate with birch was less than 2%, come on the new goverment, do what the nation wants.
What utter garbage (Ms) Goddess. Get a life and let others live theirs without fear of SCUM like your partner and his friends destroying them. Your comments are disgraceful.
This scum lives on my old street.I'd like to meet him all alone one day and give him the good news whenever I'm back over from oz.As for the rest of the scags he knows.Goddess..so how many previous 'mistakes' need there be? maybe a few stabbings and a killing..then will they 'grow up and go streight' your obviously blinded due to hanging in da hood with da rude boyz or however youz lot speak like dat init..so why dont you just have a nice big cup of shut it and stick to your werneth slums.
All too often I read these kinds of stories about the "scrotes" of Oldham who seriously need taking down a few pegs. 17 year old father who cannot be named "for legal reasons", probably never worked or has any intention to either. As for his two accomplices, just another example of the bad image of Oldham which seems to have gotten even worse in the 8 months since I left the UK for New Zealand. I still have an aversion to public transport. A virus with shoes anyone?
Tommy Field, over here the thugs get a sentence (usually a pretty severe one) and many of them will also get caned in addition. I am not saying that crime doesn't exist here (after all 'low crime doesn't mean no crime') but it's far less than in the UK and probably even less than in Gtr Manchester.
ammy, I can't remember most of my comments about Latics so it must the effects of binging :-)
I think most fans had to be drunk to get through last season.
Tommy Field's reaction is even sicker than the original crime. If you have those thoughts - and in such detail! - the potential of violence in you mustn't be far away either.
How old are you ammypam, i dont suppose remember the Teddy Boys that used razors, I know of one, and after the court sentence of the said birch, he became a good citizen, and is still a friend to me.
Doesn't the bus company have some responsibilty to ensure the safety of passengers?
Not when they are smashing the buses in to each other . As the people of Oldham town centre found today when two buses decide to use accealtor instead of the break. Which resulted in two smashed up buses a load of glass all over the place as well as the road beening block and parents of kids in prams calling the drivers a few choice names
Tommy, I suggest "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess as reading on this subject. The main reason for this kind of violence, put forward in the book, as your example of Teddy boys shows, is youth. Most violent young people simply grow out of it.
Thankfully buses these days have CCTV. Sadly the world today contains evil and disturbed people who commit 'crimes'. The British penal system is weak. Although we have a system which deals with all types of crime is it enough?? Do people and victims get their justice? I live abroad now but until there is a severe deterrent this will always go on as offenders already know their pathetic fate IF caught and prosecuted.
What is wrong with people? There is no excuse for it, drunk or not!! There need's to be a more harsh punishment. 4 years in a room with a tv, playstation nice bed, food made for you. Thats not prison! This country is going mad, maybe we should take a leaf out of the americans book and show them what prison should be! And as for goddess saying we are all scum! How can you call us? They are patheitic children who can only fight in a group! I hope they get what they deserve!!
Goddess (miss rigby), how ridiculous your comments are. I don't suppose a decent working lad with an education would give you a second look,hence your partner.
Goddess - your comments are madness - stamping on someones head is not a mistake!!! It wont be long before we're reading he's stamped on yours when you've got no cigarettes. I feel sorry for you.
Have Your Say
He should have got more than 4 years. In fact all those who took part should have been more severely punished.
By Owdhamfan @ 19/05/2010 12:40:35