A VIOLENT and ‘unprovoked’ attack outside Warrington Central Station has left a wheelchair user in a coma.
Daniel Sharples, of Grisedale Avenue in Orford, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault at Warrington Magistrates Court today, Tuesday, in relation to the incident on Sunday.
The 37-year-old was arrested by police following the incident which took place under the archway on Winwick Street.
Shortly before 12.30pm on October 6, Sharples approached the victim and began the ‘unprovoked’ assault.
Alison Warburton, prosecuting, told the court how Sharples left his victim with ‘significant swelling to his head and face’.
She said: “This was a sustained attack on a vulnerable man.
“He attacked the man and once he fell on the floor, he continued to kick him in the head.”
He was later found by police with the help of several witnesses inside the King’s Head pub opposite the station.
After he was arrested, Sharples told police he attacked the man because he was ‘selling heroin to his 15-year-old son’.
He told police: “I’m glad I did it and I’d f****** do it again.”
The victim, a 53-year-old man from Warrington, sustained serious injuries as a result of the incident.
He was taken to hospital in an ambulance and remains unconscious and in a critical but stable condition.
Sharples has pleaded guilty to assaulting the 53-year-old and causing him actual bodily harm.
He has also been charged with assaulting two other people during the same incident and possessing the class B drug cannabis.
During an application for bail, Ms Warburton argued that Sharples’ admission that ‘he would do it again’ put others and the victim at risk.
Sharples has nine previous convictions for 25 offences.
His solicitor, Mr Edwards, told the magistrates that his client ‘couldn’t believe how he had acted’ and had taken ‘a quantity of valium’ before the attack.
Sharples was remanded into custody after being denied bail by the panel and will appear at Liverpool Crown Court for sentence in November.
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