Blackburn attack victim: Single punch has messed up my life (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Blackburn attack victim: Single punch has messed up my life

11:00am Monday 25th October 2010 in Every Action Has Consequences campaign By Sam Chadderton, Reporter

THE victim of a single punch attack still suffering from his injuries a year on has urged young people to think twice before lashing out.

Speaking out to back the Consequences campaign run by the Lancashire Telegraph and family of Adam Rogers, Timothy Eastham, 45, said he has been left ‘a prisoner in his own home’ following the October 2009 incident.

He was hit with a single punch by Paul Kirkley outside the Lion Hotel pub in Wensley Road, Blackburn.

The 43-year-old of Snowdon Avenue, Blackburn, was given 20 months custody for grievous bodily harm.

Mr Eastham was knocked unconscious and fell, smashing his face on the floor.

His surgeons said his injuries were the worst they had seen in 20 years and compared them to someone hitting a brick wall face first at 40mph.

Mr Eastham, from Black-burn, said: “I’ve had 12 months of surgery and face another two years of operations to reset my lower and upper jaw.

“I’ve got 11 metal plates in my face. I broke my jaw, eye socket, nose in two places and lost some sight in my left eye.

“Two bones are broken in my temple which can’t be operated on and I face eat-ing pureed food for another two years.”

Mr Eastham has just left hospital after his latest oper-ation and says next year surgeons will remove all his teeth to try to re-set his jaw and mouth to correct an overbite caused by the attack.

He said: “It’s not just the physical, it’s what this has done to me mentally. I’ve suffered from bad spells of depression, been suicidal and have panic attacks.

“It has messed my life up.

“I totally back Consequences.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get better and my message to young people would be to think first.

"It’s easy to talk rather than wake up the next morning in a cell or to see someone suffer as I have.”

Detective Constable Rich-ard Sanderson, of Blackburn CID, was called to the incident and said the injuries were ‘horrendous’.

“These pictures show the potential consequ-ences of a punch,” he said.

“When people do such things they need to be aware the consequences can be severe.”