Party dad’s bottle cosh ordeal

“THEY could have killed me”... Mark Coope (54) attacked with glass bottles on his own doorstep

A JU-JITSU teacher was attacked with bottles by thugs who gatecrashed his daughter’s party

Mark Coope (54) was at a friend’s birthday party with his wife and 22-year-old daughter when his younger daughter called to say she was in trouble.

Mark had left his youngest daughter at home with her friends - but the gathering got out of control as people talked about it on Facebook.

A group of up to 20 15 to18-year-old boys had pushed into the house in Hutchins Lane, Watersheddings, refused to leave and even began helping themselves to Mark’s whisky collection. The group also damaged a door in the fracas.

Mark said: “My daughter sounded really upset. Everything had got out of hand and a large group of lads was refusing to leave. She tried telling them to leave and one of them punched her. I got in a taxi and headed home.”

When he arrived at around 11.30pm Mark - an instructor at Samurai Ju-Jitsu Academy in Chadderton — was confronted by the group.

Mark said: “I must have walked two steps out of the taxi when one of the cowards smacked me on the back of the head with one of my own whisky bottles. I turned round to see and was hit with another bottle. I went dizzy and hit the ground. I got back up but there were simply too many, they were all hitting me. I think I passed out.

“I can teach people how to defend themselves but there is very little you can do against such a hateful and cowardly attack. They could have killed me. My daughter was in shock.”

Mark was treated at the Royal Oldham for a broken nose and head wounds.

He said: “If it had been someone else they attacked maybe they would not have been so lucky. If I wasn’t as strong as I am these stupid boys could be looking at a murder charge. People need to know that there are others out there capable of such things.”