Whitworth Park attack: Man jailed for beating homeless man
A man who police said viciously attacked a homeless man in a park in Greater Manchester then pretended to be a Good Samaritan has been jailed.
Anthony Ellis, 25, of Hatchley Street, Chorlton on Medlock admitted battering Igor Pavlov, 41, in Whitworth Park, Rusholme, on 11 September.
After the attack, which left the victim in a coma, Ellis called an ambulance.
He was jailed for 12 and a half years for causing grievous bodily harm with intent at Manchester Crown Court.
Robert Hall, from the Crown Prosecution Service North West, described the attack as an "act of senseless violence" which caused the victim life threatening injuries and left him with "very severe" brain damage and needing specialist care indefinitely.
Police said Ellis went to Whitworth Park after a family argument.
The victim, who had been drinking earlier, was sitting on a bench on his own when Ellis carried out a sustained and ferocious attack on him.
He hit him repeatedly with an unknown object, police said, causing a fractured skull which left him in a coma for months.
Ellis then called an ambulance saying he had cut through the park and found him. He tended to him until paramedics arrived.
At first he was classed as a witness in the police investigation but detectives grew suspicious when CCTV showed he took a different route through the park to the one he had claimed.
Det Insp Rebecca Duggan said: "Only Ellis knows why he carried out such a brutal attack, which could easily have been fatal, on a man who was clearly vulnerable.
"Bearing in mind that this attack happened after dark and that there were no witnesses, this was a tremendously challenging investigation."