Rabbi Gets 8-Year Driving Ban For Mowing Down Two Pedestrians

Rabbi Berisch leaving Harrow Crown Court

A Rabbi, who lost control of a powerful Jag while parking it for an elderly lady - mowing down two pedestrians and demolishing a pharmacy - has received an eight-year driving ban.  

Ralph Berisch, 75, of Woodstock Avenue, Golders Green was sentenced to twenty-two months imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to complete sixty hours community service work.

He was captured on CCTV carrying one terrified man, 44, who thought he was going to die, on the bonnet of the car and colliding with an OAP, 79, who made what he thought was a final prayer.

A Harrow Crown Court jury unanimously convicted Berisch of two counts of causing serious injury while driving dangerously in Golders Green Road on March 28, 2018. 

He lost control of the lady’s car after agreeing to help her park it and kosher butcher David Richards suffered 13 fractures to his left leg and pensioner Simon Elkouby also received a leg break and broken toe.

“When asked for help you agreed and the roads and pavements were busy as Passover approached,” Judge Rosa Dean told the rabbi.

“You did not pause as you should have done to adjust the seat and familiarise yourself with a car far more powerful then yours. A car in the wrong hands is a lethal weapon.

“You reversed the car at speed, you put too much pressure on the accelerator and crashed into the car behind you. You should have paused, but you put it into drive and pressed the accelerator.

“This was very bad driving. The distressing footage clearly shows the devastation you caused and it is a miracle no-one was killed. Two people suffered serious injury and the shop was destroyed.

“Maybe because it was glass-fronted their lives were spared. I shudder to think what would have happened to those two men if it was a wall.

Rabbi mowing down pedestrians

“One onlooker thought a terror attack was unfolding and Mr. Richards still walks with a limp, needs a crutch and cannot walk long distances and I salute his remarkable stoicism and he holds no bitterness towards you.”

Over £70,000 of damage was done to ‘Victoria Pharmacy’ and the Jag remains damaged in a pound. 

“Mr. Elkouby said what he thought were his final prayers while trapped under the car and he suffered broken bones and severe bruising.

“I accept this was a dreadful accident and I accept you are sorry although I don’t think you have really taken responsibility for your actions and you were not a particularly impressive witness,” the judge told Berisch.”

The rabbi resumed driving short distances to his synagogue and to local shops three months after the incident, but this was criticised by the Judge Dean. “That you continued to drive some time after I think was unwise.”    

Although his own vehicle, a Toyota Yaris was also an automatic the X-type Jag was over twice as powerful and the rabbi lost control in a few seconds.

Mr. Richards said: “I heard a really, really loud excessive revving behind me and the next thing I was on the bonnet, hurtling at speed.

“I thought I was going to die and at the last second it swerved into a pharmacy. I realised my leg was broken and everything was blurry.

“I know the Rabbi behind the wheel, he is a good man it was one hundred per cent and accident and he will be suffering. It has effected my life, but I’m happy to be alive.”

Seconds from disaster: Berisch at the wheel

Mr. Elkouby saw the car coming toward him, but did not have time to avoid being struck and carried into the pharmacy.

He later told police: “A car came across the pavement and hit me directly as I tried to escape. I lost consciousness and woke up under the car and said a prayer as I thought I was going to die.”

An obviously distressed Berisch told police on the scene: “I put the car in drive, I don’t know what happened. It took off, I couldn’t control it.”

His lawyer Rachna Gokani told the court: “He wants the court to know how sorry he is for what happened and at the scene he was asking how were the injured individuals.

“Both men have been warm and kind and generous toward him and Rabbi Berisch visited the pharmacy and apologised to the owner.

“For six months his family say he was a shell of himself and depressed. He was trying to help someone he knew.

“He accepts he must be punished for these serious offences and community service gives him the chance to give back to the community he has harmed.”

Ex-Met Police Firearms Poster Girl Denies Taking Sensitive Info

A former poster girl for the Metropolitan Police’s firearms unit unlawfully took sensitive personal information to expose ‘corruption and prejudice’ against Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Staff, a court heard.

Carol Rita Howard, 41, worked on a short-term contract as an investigator for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which she later took to an employment tribunal.

The former Lambeth and Croydon borough officer’s gun-toting image was used on security posters at the 2012 London Olympics and she served The Met between 2001 and 2014.

Croydon Crown Court heard she was hired by the IPCC on October 31, 2016 and does not deny accessing the information, which included the probe of a serving police officer, accused of sexual offences and sending it to her solicitor.

“She admitted forwarding the emails to herself and sending them to her solicitor,” prosecutor Eva Niculiu told the jury. 

“Her reasons for sending them out was to get legal advice for her ‘whistle-blowing’ employment tribunal claims of corruption and prejudice at the IPCC against BAME staff.”

Howard was employed by the IPCC for approximately five months. “Her employment ended on the basis of suspected security breaches,” explained the prosecutor.

“In the days up to April 6, 2017, 101 emails had been sent from the defendant’s IPCC email address to her personal hotmail address and all of these contained personal data.

“She also retained a copy of her ‘blue book’, which was used to report on her work at the IPCC during investigations.

The IPCC reported Howard to the Information Commissioners Office, which is prosecuting the case and interviewed her under caution on September 5, 2018.

“When she was questioned he said: ‘I clicked on the emails. I didn’t go through every document.’

“She had daily access to personal information,” added Ms Niculiu. “The IPCC is a public body overseeing complaints made against the police in England and Wales.

“On her first day at work at the IPCC the defendant signed a security procedure form, agreeing not to disclose information.”

The IPCC has since re-branded itself as The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The mum-of-one, of Coulsdon Road, Coulsdon has pleaded not guilty to one count of unlawfully obtaining personal information under the Data Protection Act between March 28, 2017 and April 6, 2017, including victims, witnesses and service users.

She also pleads not guilty to another count under the Act of unlawfully disclosing the same personal information to her solicitor between the same dates.

The trial is expected to last four days……….. 

Trial Collapses: Shambles Or Sabotage?

Cleared: Jefferson Alves Brito

A former model agency boss, accused of a naked drunken rampage in a tycoon’s £2m Knightsbridge flat, has been cleared by a judge who condemned the police and Crown Prosecution Service.

Jefferson Alves Brito, 33, was said to have downed vodka direct from the bottle while demanding food from the housekeeper, who was so scared she called her husband to the address.

Brito, of Academy Place, Isleworth always denied shoving the housekeeper and pushing a kitchen table into her husband at the Cadogan Square flat on September 21, last year.

He was found not guilty of assaulting Mrs Dinka Stoyanova and Mr Borislav Stoyanova by District Judge Angus Hamilton, who announced: “This trial has descended into a farce.”

Brazil-born Brito is the former director of a dissolved company called Dashingmodels Ltd.

The alleged victims struggled to understand prosecution questions and gave no incriminating evidence against Brito.

The owner of the property, Elie Taktouk, had originally accused Brito of destroying high-end property at the address, but this was dropped at the defendant's first Crown Court appearance.

Police investigating the complaint confirmed both witnesses had a good grasp of the English language, but there was no evidence of this during the trial.

Both witnesses had no interpreter to assist them and struggled to understand prosecutor Angela O’Dwyer’s questions at Hendon Magistrates Court.

Brito was also originally charged with causing £42,000 worth of damage to 5 paintings; 2 statues; glassware; candle holders; flooring; rugs; clothing and a mattress belonging to businessman Elie Taktouk.    

This charge was dropped at Isleworth Crown Court, but the CPS continued with the assault charges, with the police officer in charge failing to note the complainants had issues with the english language.

“Nothing that has been said would allow me to convict Mr Brito,” said DJ Hamilton after hearing the confused evidence. “The blame lies entirely with the police and prosecution here.

“The questions were met with utter incomprehension. This is totally unsatisfactory that the case is in this state.

“I am never going to be sure two assaults were committed.

“I am very unhappy. This case emphasises everything that is currently wrong with the criminal justice system and that an officer says Mrs Stoyanova’s english is adequate is astonishing.”

Earlier Ms O’Dwyer said: “The defendant pushed a chair and kitchen table into the husband, contacting his chin, chest and stomach and she was later pushed.”

Mr Stoyanova told the court: “He was naked, drunk and threw glass on the floor and was drinking vodka from the bottle and he was so aggressive, swearing all the time.

“He took a picture from the wall, put it on the bed and tried to jump on it,” he added, failing to give any evidence of the assault allegation.

Mrs Stoyanova said trouble continued for 5-6 hours up to around 10pm. “He put pictures on the sofa and wanted to jump on top  and took a knife and wanted to scratch them.”

She claimed Brito pushed her ”two or three times,” but described it as nothing more than gently placing his hands on her shoulders, which DJ Hamilton ruled couldn’t be disproved as self-defence by the defendant.

“I am horrified that people who say they are victims of crime have been let down by the CPS and the police,” said the judge. “This case is a horrifying mess on anyones opinion.

“It is in such a woeful state the only option is to dismiss both matters. I can never be sure these people were assaulted.

“I am complaining that I cannot judge this case on its merits. It is ridiculous that statement was taken in a manner that suggested she spoke english.

“When you get this day in and day out it gets to you after a while and victims of crime are not getting a fair hearing. It is annoying and nobody takes responsibility.”

He asked the prosecutor to communicate his feelings to the CPS.

Movie Man Accepts Police Caution

An award-winning movie industry boss, who has worked on multiple Hollywood films, has received a police caution for assaulting two men at a landmark St. James’s building, a court heard yesterday.

Robin Pizzey, 47, is the director of Soho-based Goldcrest Post Production Facilities and won an award for his work on Margaret Thatcher bio ‘The Iron Lady’ - starring Meryl Streep.

At Westminster Magistrates Court the Crown Prosecution Service announced both charges had been dropped after Pizzey accepted a caution from police, who usually require some degree of admission from the accused. 

Pizzey, of Bridgewater Road, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, was charged with assaulting Samir Tharani and Reece Tharani-Gayton at Carlton House Terrace on December 14.

The building - a Grade I listed Georgian townhouse - is the HQ of the British Academy for Humanities and Social Sciences. 

Pizzey has 92 credits for visual effects in films and television shows, including ’Stan & Ollie’; Murder on the Orient Express’; ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’; ‘Jason Bourne’; both Inbetweeners movies; ‘Quantum of Solace and Eddie the Eagle.

He has 52 credits for Editorial Department, including ‘Captain Philips’ and ‘Alpha Papa’.

In 2012 the Hollywood Post Alliance gave him the award for outstanding colour grading for ‘The Iron Lady’.

Jockey Saddled With Penalty Points

A flat-race jockey has been found guilty of being in charge of his silver Mercedes car while over the drinks limit at Heathrow Airport.

Slade O'Hara, 36, was not driving the five-door hatchback at the time so avoided an automatic disqualification, but was hit with ten penalty points on his driving licence.

The winner of fifty-three horse races, of Church Road, King's Lynn, Wolferton, Norfolk was fined £261, with £85 costs and ordered to pay a £32 victim surcharge.

He pleaded guilty to being in charge of the vehicle, while unfit through drink, on the Terminal Two forecourt on January 26.

The biggest win of O'Hara's racing career was the Group Two Temple Stakes at Haydock Park in 2009 when he rode Look Busy to victory.

Between 2002 and 2016 he secured 53 victories, netting prize money of approximately £440,000.

Chelsea Man Guilty Of Assault

A Chelsea man, who fought a charge of assaulting woman in west London, has been banned from contacting her after being convicted.

Oliver Spitzer, 28, of Daska House, King's Road was found guilty of assaulting Erika Toth in nearby Ealing on October 5, last year.

He protested his innocence and stood trial at Uxbridge Magistrates Court.

After being convicted he was bailed to return for a pre-sentence report.

Spitzer was sentenced to a twelve-month community order, which includes 150 hours community service.

He was also ordered to pay £120 compensation to the victim, £620 costs and a £90 victim surcharge.

The Crown Prosecution Service also successfully applied for a two-year restraining order prohibiting Spitzer contacting Erika Toth.

HOWZAT!: Ex-Cricketer Caught Out By Cops

Court In The Slips: Malcolm-Hansen

A former county cricketer caught driving his BMW while over double the drinks limit has been fined and banned from the roads.

English-born Danish cricketer Richard Johan Anders Malcolm-Hansen, 33, played internationally and for Loughborough University and Leicestershire.

He represented Denmark between 2005 and 2008, including their 2005 ICC trophy campaign.

Malcolm-Hansen, of Caroline House, Dorset Road, Beckenham fought the charge, but was convicted of driving the black BMW 325 in nearby Kent House Road on September 8, last year with excess alcohol in his breath.

He gave a reading of 85 microgrammes of alcohol – the legal limit is 35.

At Bexley Magistrates Court he was fined £1500, with £310 costs, ordered to pay a £150 victim surcharge and was disqualified from driving for twenty months.

Malcolm-Hansen batted right-hand and bowled right-arm offbreak during a career that also included stints with Kent and Beckenham Cricket Club.

Bank Intern Harassed Boss She Had Affair With

A graduate trainee, who fell in love with a HSBC manager thirty years her senior, bombarded him and his teenage daughter with disturbing and insulting messages when they split-up, a court heard.

Emily Salt, 26, who has a degree in International Business, Finance and Economics joined the banking giant as a Graduate Management Trainee, where she met the middle-aged boss.

However, when their relationship fell apart she messaged the father, 56, 89 times over four weeks, threatening: “I will destroy your daughter and your career.”

She told his 16 year-old daughter: “You look like a slut, your eyebrows are halfway up our head. Your dad makes enough money to get a nose job for you.”

Insults aimed at the girl’s mother were also included.

Salt, of Elmhurst Cottage, Lyme Park, Disley, Stockport - who attended the local Poynton High School Sixth Form - was sentenced to an eighteen month community order.

She appeared at south London’s Croydon Magistrates Court as her offending continued during a period living in the capital.

Salt pleaded guilty to causing her ex harassment between April 15 and May 19, last year and his daughter harassment between November 1, 2018 and August 1, 2019.

She was also ordered to complete up to 25 days probation-ordered rehabilitation and 100 hours community service work.

Salt was made subject to an 18-month restraining order, prohibiting contact with the two victims or visiting their addresses in Old Coppice, York and nearby Ploughmans Lane, Haxby.

She must also pay £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge.

“The offences clearly cross the custody threshold. The young victim was forced to endure nearly a year of your sustained abuse and harassment,” District Judge Nigel McLean told the first-time offender.

“It was designed to cause her maximum distress at a time she was sitting exams.

“Your actions in relation to the father were designed to cause him distress by subjecting him to harassment and abusing his daughter as well.

“The abuse they are subject to was sinister.”

Prosecutor Julie Idowu said: “The former partner told the defendant not to contact him or his family and threatened to report her to the police as there had been other incidents.

“There was also an attempt to hack into the ISA account of the daughter. He received a text from the defendant notifying him of an attempt to liquidate the investment in his daughter’s Junior ISA account.”

Salt was also originally charged with a £9,000 fraud regarding the ISA, but this was dropped at Inner London Crown Court.

“Facebook and Instagram accounts were set up in the name of the male complainant and friends and family of his received requests, but the accounts belonged to this defendant,” added Ms Idowu.

Salt’s lawyer Marina Williamson told the court: “She met the victim during a six-month internship at the bank and little did she know it would end up in the terrible ordeal that has ended here.

“He was senior at the bank, thirty years older than her and she was quite vulnerable, quite young.

“She fell deeply in love with him and that is part of the reason she behaved so badly at the end.

“She was a victim of psychological manipulation, domestic violence at the hands of the complainant who lied and made false promises.”

However, District Judge McLean announced: “This is victim blaming. We have to be very careful here.

“The second victim, the daughter, was an innocent party in all of this and it went on for almost a year against her.”

Ministry Of Justice Civil Servant Nicked £1.7m

A senior Ministry of Justice civil servant is starting a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for defrauding taxpayers of £1.7m to fund his luxury lifestyle.

Allan Huw Williams, 37, was a manager in the MoJ's financial and control sector. 

He diverted payments from the department to a fictitious company he controlled.

He was exposed when a fellow employee became suspicious about money transfers.

Williams, a Grade Seven civil servant, who was paid £50,000-£60,000 a year treated himself to a five-bedroom manor house siting in 1.1 acres of Hampshire countryside and Audi SQ5 and Audi A3.

Now living in Ravens Clough, Heath Mill Lane, Worplesdon, Guildford, Surrey he pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position between August 3, 2017 and July 5, last year and transferring £1,738,000 in criminal property.

Southwark Crown Court heard Williams created a £7m purchase order for a bogus 'IT services contract' from a company he created – 'Sopra Business Consulting' – and set up a monthly payment.

When he was caught Williams had already transferred £1.4m from the fake company's account to his own and the firm had £400,000 in the bank.

Judge Joanna Korner QC told him: You conceived of this plan to make yourself richer. It was both sophisticated and greedy.”

The MoJ has recovered £900,000 and is pursuing the remainder.

Parked Motorist Fined For Late-Night Whiskey Session In Car

A motorist caught by police sitting in the driver's seat enjoying a bottle of whiskey with a drinking buddy has been fined.

Satpal Singh Nandra, 37, of Watery Lane, Northolt had been sipping from a plastic cup and an empty bottle of booze was found by officers in the car's footwell.

He was not banned from driving because the engine was not running, although the keys were in the ignition.

Nandra pleaded guilty at Uxbridge Magistrates Court today for being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle in Popular Avenue, Southall on February 3.

The court heard that at approx 10.35pm, Police Constable Jaz Alangh and Police Sergeant Guy Rooney from Southall Green Safer Neighbourhood Team were on patrol.

Their attention was drawn to a parked vehicle and as the officers approached the vehicle, they saw the driver Nandra and his passenger were both holding plastic cups. 

It was also noticed that there was an empty bottle of whiskey in the passenger foot well.

PS Rooney established from Nandra that he had been drinking whiskey for a few hours, whilst sitting in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition of the vehicle.

Nandra was arrested for being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle and taken to a west London Police Station. 

He was charged with consuming so much alcohol that the proportion of it in his breath was 59 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

The drink drive legal limit for drivers is 35 microgrammes in 100 millilitres of breath.

PC Jaz Alangh, Dedicated Ward Officer, Southall Green said “Drinking and driving kills lives, there are no excuses, even if your sat in the car whilst not driving it! If you want a drink, leave the car at home.”

Nandra's driving licence was endorsed with 10 penalty points and he was fined £423. 

He must also pay a surcharge to fund victim services of £42 and costs of £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Rabbi Mowed Down Two Pedestrians While Parking Jag

Rabbi Berisch Arriving At Court

A helpful Rabbi, assisting a woman park her powerful Jaguar car, mowed down two pedestrians and demolished a pharmacy when the vehicle suddenly took off, a court heard today.

Ralph Berisch, 75, was caught on CCTV carrying one terrified man, 44, who thought he was going to die, on the bonnet and colliding with an OAP with a walking stick.

Both victims ended up in the front of the destroyed shop, with the OAP, 79, suffering a broken leg and toe and the other man 13 fractures to his left leg and a lacerated right arm.

Berisch, of Woodstock Avenue, Golders Green has pleaded not guilty to two counts of causing serious injury while driving dangerously in Golders Green Road on March 28, 2018.

He claims he simply got the brake and accelerator pedals mixed up in the unfamiliar automatic car, which reached 20mph on the pavement, also demolishing a bin and bending a metal bollard.

Prosecutor Mr. Nicholas Alexander told Harrow Crown Court: “There are people going about their business, including David Richards, who had just visited his children at a local nursery.

“He describes hearing an extremely loud revving of an engine and being struck from behind and on the bonnet of the car and thinking he was going to die.”

In his statement the kosher butcher said: “I heard a really, really loud excessive revving behind me and the next thing I was on the bonnet, hurtling at speed.

David Richard carried on bonnet before Jag collided with Simon Elkouby

“I thought I was going to die and at the last second it swerved into a pharmacy. I realised my leg was broken and everything was blurry.

“I know the Rabbi behind the wheel, he is a good man it was one hundred per cent and accident and he will be suffering. It has effected my life, but I’m happy to be alive.”

Pedestrian Simon Elkouby saw the car coming toward him, but did not have time to avoid being struck and carried into the pharmacy.

“You will see on the CCTV he tried to move out of the way, but the car is moving at speed,” the prosecutor told the jury. “The car collides with him and he is carried into the front window of the pharmacy.”

He later told police: “A car came across the pavement and hit me directly as I tried to escape. I lost consciousness and woke up under the car and said a prayer as I thought I was going to die.”

An obviously distressed Berisch told police on the scene: “I put the car in drive, I don’t know what happened. It took off, I couldn’t control it.”

The horsepower of the X-type Jag was over twice that of the rabbi’s Toyota Yaris.

Mr. Alexander told the court: “Two people suffered serious injury as the result of the way Rabbi Berisch drove that day.”

He had agreed to assist a woman he knew park her car in a side road. “The next thing the car suddenly reversed backwards into the car parked behind it in a matter of seconds.

“The next thing the car moved forward and accelerated, mounting the pavement and turned left onto Golders Green Road and he next thing she heard was a big crash.”

Eye-witness Dick Segal, 74, a retired designer watched Berisch struggle to park the Jag. “To my amazement it reversed at quick speed into the car behind.

“There was an almighty crash and then the Jag turned left and mounted the pavement and to my absolute horror smashed into a parked car and I saw the door window disintegrate.

“Before that he had looked up and down Beverley Gardens in what I thought was odd behaviour. It was very peculiar.” 

The glass-fronted Victoria Pharmacy was destroyed and boss Abbas Dosa recalled: “I heard a very loud crash as the car came crashing through the window of my shop.

“I could see someone was pinned by the car and someone on the bonnet was screaming. This man had injuries to his leg and there was blood everywhere.

“The shop suffered catastrophic damage.”

Trial continues………..

BTP Cop Meets His Career Waterloo

An off-duty British Transport Police Officer assaulted a woman at Waterloo railway station.

Police Constable Andrew Smith, 48, was hit with a £1,680 bill in fines and court costs.

Ironically, as a BTP officer his day-to-day responsibility is maintaining law and order on the country's railway and transport networks.

He was convicted at Hendon Magistrates Court of one count of common assault.

The court heard PC Smith assaulted the victim after an argument at the station on March 14, last year.

PC Smith remains on restricted administrative duties.

Now he has been convicted of a criminal offence PC Smith will be subject to misconduct proceedings.

If misconduct is proved he faces dismissal from the force.

Tram Bag-Snatch Bid: CCTV Image Released

Police are hunting this suspected bag snatcher after a tram commuter suffered broken teeth when she was dragged to the ground.

British Transport Police have released this CCTV image as they attempt to identify the man.

They are treating the offence as attempted robbery.

The woman was targeted at 11.30am on Tuesday February 4 at Reeves Corner Tram Stop, Croydon.

The suspect is reported to have tried ripping the victim’s bag from her hands. 

This caused her to fall over and suffer injuries to her face and teeth.

Witnesses challenged the man and he ran away empty handed towards West Croydon railway station, where he is believed to have boarded a train.

Officers would like to speak to the man in the image who may have information that can help their investigation.

Anyone who knows him is asked to contact British Transport Police by texting 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40. 

In both cases, quote reference number 208 of 04/02/20.

Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Couple From Hell Jailed For Brutal Attack On Man

Caged: Cecil Phillips & Tarnia Piasecki

A violent couple, who savagely beat their victim after the female half of the duo invited him back to their place, have been locked-up.

Cecil Phillips, 46, and Tarnia Piasecki, 32, both of Warner Road, Camberwell, were both convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Their victim, aged 42 years-old, who was subjected to a violent twenty-minute beating, was left fighting for his life with severe head injuries.

At Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court Phillips received 18 years imprisonment and Piasecki 10 years.

Detective Constable Nicola Barker, from the South Central Command Unit, said:"The victim of this horrific assault fortunately made a full recovery, thanks to the aid administered by the initial responding officers, paramedics and NHS staff.

"But for their efforts the assault inflicted by Phillips and Piasecki could have proved fatal. 

“I hope the sentence we have received will allow the victim some closure as he moves on with his life."

Police in Southwark were called to Warner Road at 05.41am on September 15, 2018, following reports of an assault.

Officers attended and found a man suffering from a serious head injury. 

He was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Both Phillips and Piasecki were arrested the same day in connection with the incident. 

They were charged and remanded in custody.

Enquiries were undertaken to identify the victim immediately after the assault, including the issue of a media appeal. 

However, in late September 2018 the man awoke and identified himself to hospital staff. 

It was established that the victim and the suspects were known to each other.

Piasecki targeted the victim, approaching him in Camberwell, and inviting him back to the address where the assault took place, in order to rob him. 

Phillips followed them and the victim was subjected to a sustained attack.

Judge Rajeev Shetty told the pair their victim as “attacked and beaten savagely,” describing Phillips as a “dangerous offender” and Piasecki as a “fairly manipulative person.”