A DAD described the heart-stopping moment he was told his son had been attacked and left seriously injured following an incident outside a nightclub.
The Leader reported yesterday how 21-year-old Brandon Morris, of Kingsway in Chester, was jailed in relation to an incident in Wrexham City Centre on December 10 last year.
He'd admitted an offence of inflicting grievous bodily harm upon a man named Ryan Lancelotte.
Morris delivered one punch to the victim during a "large scale disturbance" outside Atik nightclub.
Mr Lancelotte collapsed and struck his head on the concrete, resulting in bruising and bleeding on the brain, as well as a blood clot.
The court heard no ambulance was available to take the victim to hospital, so medical first responders on scene called on Mr Lancelotte's parents to hurry to the city centre in order to take him themselves.
During the sentencing hearing, the court heard a victim personal statement from Ryan Lancelotte, in which he said he was not able to do any of his passions, including martial arts, football and motorbike racing, in the aftermath of the punch.
He'd also lost his job as an electrician and experiences lapses in his memory.
Andrew Lancelotte, the victim's father, took to the witness stand to tell the court personally of the impact the crime had on his son, as well as himself and Ryan's mother.
"Our world was turned upside down. We had a phone call at 4am to say our son had been attacked and was not in a good way," he emotionally told the court.
He explained he and the victim's mother got their son to A&E by 5am and were checked into a cubicle two hours later.
"Ryan was not making sense," Mr Lancelotte continued.
"The pain he was in made him shout 'I want to die' several times.
"A nurse came to ask him to be quiet.
"I tried to plead with him. I feel so guilty now, that I was asking him to be quiet when the bleed was putting pressure on his brain."
Ryan was referred to the Royal Stoke Hospital for specialist care and surgery.
Andrew Lancelotte said: "It was so fast, we had no clue what was happening.
"We stayed by his bed for the next five days.
"Ryan wanted to go home, which we did on the Friday night - December 15.
"The hospital told us to keep an eye on him.
"We took it in shifts to watch Ryan in the night, and since the beginning of January, he's been unable to sleep through the night."
The court heard how the incident resulted in potential permanent changes to Ryan's mental health and personality.
His dad added: "We're on pins all the time... In limbo.
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"Ryan's not the same son as he was before."
During the sentencing hearing, defending counsel Ryan Rothwell said his client believed he'd seen Mr Lancelotte striking out at a female, which had prompted him to run over and punch him.
But he said Morris "clearly accepts retaliating above and beyond the realms of protecting the female."
Mr Rothwell added: "The defendant pretty swiftly regretted what happened and told the police he didn't mean to hit the complainant so hard.
"He is devastated at the harm he has caused to the complainant and takes full responsibility for the offence."
Judge Timothy Petts praised the efforts of Kerry Spoor, a clinical nurse working at the nearby Hafan y Dref medical centre, and her colleagues who saw the punch and ran to help.
A doorman who also saw the strike described it as one of the most serious things he'd ever seen, and admitted he initially believed Mr Lancelotte was dead.
Judge Petts Jailed Morris for 16 months for the offence.
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