Brierfield takeaway workers jailed over brutal attack (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Brierfield takeaway workers jailed over brutal attack

10:00am Sunday 26th August 2012 in News

A GANG of takeaway workers have been jailed for nearly 50 years for a brutal attack on a bodybuilder, which left him critically injured.

Judge Beverley Lunt branded Mohammed Nawaz, Mohammed Javed and Mohammed Afran ‘cowardly’ for a ‘chilling’ sledgehammer and hockey stick attack on Asif Hussain, which left him with life-changing injuries.

It was only the intervention of two off-duty nurses, who came across Mr Hussain’s battered body immediately after the violence in Colne Road, Brierfield, that probably saved his life, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Today Mr Hussain, 39, who suffered a fractured skull, a broken leg, extensive cuts and severe bruising all over his body, has to rely on his elderly parents for support with day-to-day tasks.

The keen bodybuilder was once proud of his physique but now has to use crutches to get around and suffers from memory loss.

Jailing Nawaz, Javed and Arfan for 16 years each, Judge Lunt added: “This attack was premeditated, it was brutal and it was cowardly.

“The three of you, each armed, became involved in a potentially deadly attack on a singular unarmed man.”

The judge said the trio had employed ‘breathtaking arrogance’ in carrying out the beating in broad daylight on a busy town centre street.

An earlier trial, at which Nawaz, 44, Javed 41, and Arfan, 36, were convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, heard that Mr Hussain had been en-route to the Bodies In Motion gym in Brierfield when he was set upon.

The court heard there had been tensions between Mr Hussain and his friends and the three men - and there had been attempts to broker a ‘peace deal’ between the parties within the Asian community had been made.

An eyewitness told jurors how one of the group was seen raining down blows with a sledgehammer and another recalled how he was also struck with a hockey stick and baseball bat. A third man was seen appearing to stab him.

Brothers Arfan, of Manchester Road, and Nawaz, of Hardy Avenue, both Nelson, run five branches of the Dixie Chicken franchise in Burnley and Pendle.

They enlisted the assistance of their employee Javed, of Burnley Road, Brierfield, for the June 20 attack.

An off-duty police officer saw the three men shortly after the attack and tried to follow them. But by chance, 10 days later, Arfan, was being interviewed about another matter at Burnley police station and the officer recognised him.

Arrested and interviewed, the trio refused to answer police questions and all went on to make denials at trial.

Judge Lunt said that it was not likely their victim would ever make a full recovery from his injuries.

While the judge recognised there was a ‘feud’ between the rival parties, there was ‘no explanation or excuse’ for such an attack.

Pennine police divisional commander Chief Supt Chris Bithell added: “This type of behaviour will simply not be tolerated.