Assault ends with man in hospital

11:30am Saturday 26th July 2008

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A SECOND serious assault within ten days in the Wood Street area of Macclesfield has put another man in hospital with severe head injuries.

This latest attack took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, following a confrontation between a 32-year-old man and four Asian men in the Chicago Rock Cafe on Pickford Street.

As the man left the bar at 2.46am, accompanied by two women, he was assaulted by one of the Asian men, described as being 5ft 4ins in height with spiky hair, and knocked unconscious. He was taken to Macclesfield Hospital with serious head injuries and from there was transferred to Hope Hospital’s high dependency unit.

As Community News went to press, his condition was said to be not life threatening.

The previous assault in Wood Street - reported in Community News last week - took place in the early hours of Friday July 11. Once again, the victim was taken to hospital where he was said to be in a critical condition.

Insp Gareth Woods, head of Macclesfield Neighbourhood Policing Unit, said that ever since extended licensing hours were introduced last year, more police had been placed on the area’s streets late at night and in the early morning at weekends.

“We’ve got more officers on patrol late at night, and PCSOs are on duty in the day taking alcohol off kids, so we are dealing with the problem, but we’d rather it didn’t happen in the first place,” said Insp Woods.

“Unfortunately, a minority of people are determined to go out, get drunk and start fighting, with the conseuquences we have seen.”

Street crime increases during the summer months, say police, as people spend more evenings out and drink more.

Chief Inspector Peter Crowcroft, of the ArcAngel campaign against alcohol-related crime in Cheshire Police Eastern Area, said: “We have increased patrols, speeded up response when there is trouble and we break up gangs of teenage drinkers. We are also working with licensing authorities and licensees to make sure drink is not sold to people who are under-age, or to people who are already drunk.

“If we consider how many people go out and have a great time, then compare this to the number of people who cause problems, we clearly see that there are far more people behaving well than those who do not.”

Anyone with information on the latest serious assault is asked to contact DC Sarah McDonagh or DS Chris Barrow on 01244 613619, or telephone Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.