Thug who carried out ‘sickening’ attack on disabled man jailed

LOCKED UP: Alex Procter

The thug who admitted throwing disabled Karl Dean out of his wheelchair in an unprovoked attack has today been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison.

Alex Procter, 20, of Cranham Grove, had admitted at an earlier court date attacking Mr Dean on Holderness Road, leaving him injured on the floor and his wheelchair badly damaged.

The shocking assault prompted a swift investigation, primarily focused on piecing together CCTV imagery from that night in August last year.

With no named suspect and minimal witnesses to work from, officers spent hours trawling through camera footage covering the area, ultimately leading to the arrest of Mr Procter just days after the assault.

Detective Sergeant Donna Wagner, whose team led the investigation, said: “Firstly, I would like to praise Karl Dean for his bravery and positive attitude throughout and following this attack. I can only imagine how distressing this experience must have been.

“My team of officers and staff were determined to find the person responsible and we are glad that we were able catch and convict him so quickly to prevent any further cowardly attacks of this nature, and that the court process has now delivered the justice deserved for Mr Dean.

“Hopefully now this has concluded and Mr Procter is behind bars, it will bring Mr Dean some closure; however, we will continue to do whatever we can to support Mr Dean, as I know the local community will too.

“It became absolutely clear straight away from the public’s response to this assault that everyone was as sickened by this as us, and I would like to thank everyone who got behind our officers to support this investigation and Mr Dean in any way they could.

“As a force we will not tolerate behaviour of this kind in any circumstance and as shown by this investigation, we will do our best to take prompt and thorough action against offenders.”