Thug left victim in vegetative state after one-punch attack

A MAN has been left in a vegetative state with no certainty he will survive after being the victim of a single punch outside a hostel for the homeless.

- JASON EVANS Reporter

The victim was taunted as he lay on the ground in what a judge called “disgraceful” scenes outside the Huggard hostel in Cardiff.

His attacker, Andrew Stanbury, has been told that if the man dies he will be prosecuted for manslaughter.

It is now five months since the attack, and the victim’s future remains uncertain.

In an impact statement read to Cardiff Crown Court by the victim's sister, she said her brother was a kind and polite person whom she loved dearly, and she said she didn’t know whether she would ever hear his voice again.

She said the family had not shown their mother photographs of her son as they would only cause her distress.

Marian Lewis, prosecuting, told the court that on the morning of January 31 this year, an argument developed between a man and a woman outside the Huggard homeless centre, which resulted in the woman throwing a punch at the man, and the man responding by throwing a water bottle at the woman.

She said other people who were in the vicinity of the centre then became involved in the disturbance.

The court heard one of those other people was the defendant, Stanbury, who seemed “determined” to get at the man, before his path was blocked by a member of the centre's security staff.

The man was then ushered through the gate into the Huggard compound and Stanbury joined a group standing nearby.

The prosecutor said when the man came back out of the centre and approached the group, Stanbury delivered a “swinging punch” which connected with the side of his face and sent him to the ground.

The man struck the back of his head on the road and lost consciousness. Stanbury then made off from the scene.