South Wales Evening Post
October 5, 2014
A wheelchair-bound man claims he is living in fear after being threatened by one man and then attacked by two others.
James Rees lost part of his right leg after a motorbike accident last year and said that he was kicked on it a number of times.
The trouble began at around 9.30pm last Sunday after Mr Rees, aged 28, of Heol Gwyrosydd in Penlan, returned from a local shop in his wheelchair.
“I crossed the road in Heol Gwyrosydd and started to make my way home,” he said. “Then a man drove up beside me. He wound the passenger window of his car down. He called me a cripple and a peg leg. He threatened to run over my wheelchair and then he drove on.”
Soon after two other men arrived on the scene, he said.
“The one in the front grabbed my jumper and tried to pull me out of the wheelchair,” he said. “Another man came from behind me and pulled my hoodie. He punched me in the face from behind.”
Mr Rees said the other man kicked the stump of injured leg a number of times, leaving him screaming in pain. He has since had to see a specialist at Morriston Hospital to assess any new damage to his leg.
“I don’t want to go out,” he said. “Why should it be like that? No one should suffer this. My girlfriend is 10 weeks pregnant and I want to go out with our child.”
Police said they were investigating allegations of threats made in Heol Gwyrosydd at around 9.30pm last Sunday.
“The victim and the suspect are known to each other and inquiries are ongoing to trace him,” said a spokesman.
“Officers are also investigating an assault of the man by two men in the same location which happened at around 9.45pm.”
Police described one of the two men on foot as of Asian appearance, aged mid-20s, of slim build, black hair, with short back and sides, with a pattern shaved in the sides of his hair, near his ears. He was clean shaven, and was wearing a dark blue hooded top and dark coloured Nike tracksuit bottoms. He ran down Heol Gwyrosydd in the general direction of Mynydd Newydd Road, and was with the other man.
Can you help? Call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting occurrence number 1400365025.