‘Danger’ thug guilty of second attack

A VICIOUS thug locked up indefinitely for leaving a man brain damaged in a drunken assault at a Sheffield tram stop has been convicted of another violent attack.

David Sumner, aged 26, was jailed for 12 months after he admitted attacking another man – three months before the assault on family man Alan Smith.

Sumner, of Thornborough Road, Heeley, was jailed indefinitely in March after he was found guilty of attacking 57-year-old Mr Smith at a city tram stop in November 2006.

Mr Smith was left needing 24-hour care after Sumner punched him in a drunken rage when he tried to intervene in a scuffle near the Donetsk Way tramstop.

Sumner was locked up indefinitely for the protection of the public and ordered to serve a minimum term of five years and three months. His minimum term was reduced by appeal judges to four years but he can only be released when he is no longer considered a danger to the public.

Hauled before Sheffield Crown Court again, Sumner admitted affray after he and another man, who has never been caught, confronted a young man on the street and demanded a cigarette. When his girlfriend jumped in front of Sumner, he invited her to fight saying: “Do you want a go?”

The man was pushed to the ground and his rucksack stolen in the attack on Charlotte Road, near St Mary’s Gate in the city centre in August 2006.

Sumner was caught six days later after the couple spotted him in a bar and rang the police.

The court heard he initially denied the attack, claiming he was at home the whole time and putting forward his mother as an alibi.

Jailing Sumner for a year with an extended licence period of two years, Judge Patrick Robertshaw said: “The facts of the present case simply outline that you are indeed a danger. In theory you are eligible for release at the halfway stage but that isn’t going to happen.”

Sheffield Star

From 2007.