In the early hours of Saturday morning (March 23), a local man was brutally attacked on St James’ Street after leaving The Zone, one of the area’s popular weekend cabaret haunts.
After leaving the bar at closing time around 1am his mobile phone was snatched from him as he passed the Bulldog. As he gave chase, he was set upon by four men at the junction of Dorset Gardens who punched and kicked him repeatedly in the face.
The attack was so vicious the victim, a local 35-year-old who does not wish to be named, was transferred from The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton to The Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead where he underwent reconstruction surgery with metal rods to his jaw. Friends described his head as having swollen to twice its usual size.
The same night another local man, Felix White, was robbed twice within 90 minutes. First at around 1am near The Zone his bag containing his phone and wallet was snatched from him. His attacker was described as slim and around 1.75m tall.
At approximately 2.30am opposite Brighton Police Station, a group of six teenagers then robbed his hat and headphones, the headphones were later recovered.
Later that weekend Mr. White managed to track the location of his phone to the Island of Guernsey. He reported the incident to the police including the tracking information but when we spoke to Mr.White he said he was disappointed by the police response. They said to him; “‘There’s nothing we can do’ and just gave me a crime number. When I told them that my phone is in Guernsey and will they call the police there, they said ‘no’”.
Less than a week earlier local barman Neil Bray who works at the The Marine Tavern sustained injuries following an attack outside the Co-op supermarket. On Sunday March 17 he left the Co-op eating a packet of crisps which were snatched from his hand. He shouted after the individual only to be attacked from behind and repeatedly punched and shoved into the Co-op store window. Although the window did not break, Mr. Bray sustained a serious cut to his arm and is still bruised some ten days later. He too reported the incident to the police:
Mr Bray said; “I offered them photographs of my injuries but they didn’t want them. They did contact me some days later to say they had seen the CCTV and that as the attackers were wearing hoods there was no more they could do”.
St James’ Street is often referred to as ‘the gay village’ and a number of community bars are based on or near there. It is also the focus of the street party over the Pride in Brighton and Hove weekend.
If you have been attacked in St James Street recently please email info@gscene.com giving as many details as possible. Three attacks on three local men is three too many!
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