Attack victim left for dead in Long Eaton park by man who beat him unconscious

A Long Eaton attack victim was hit with such force by a drunk armed with a bag full of bottles the glass inside it shattered and left him with permanent scarring. Nottingham Crown Court heard how after assaulting the unconscious victim Deimantas Svabinskas simply left the man lying covered in blood in a park.

In a victim impact statement the man told how he felt he was “left to die” by the 41-year-old, turned to alcohol to cope and lost his job as a result of what happened to him as his sleep pattern was affected so badly. And at the time of the incident, the defendant was in the UK illegally having previously been deported following an earlier and unrelated assault.

Jailing him for three years and three months, Judge James Sampson said: “This was a nasty and sustained assault which caused serious injury. It was gratuitous, you used a bag containing bottles and a metal chain as a weapon and (the victim) was defenceless at the time because he was unconscious.

READ MORE: Notts drug dealer who made thousands selling cocaine to pay a fraction of it back

READ MORE: Greek man flew into UK to tend Clifton cannabis grow worth 'hundreds of thousands'

“You are no stranger to the courts but this was an escalation in the violence you have previously used. He had his nose broken in multiple places and suffered a traumatic brain injury.

“He now has trouble sleeping, he used alcohol to cope and he lost his job. He also now has a permanent crooked nose which he is self-conscious about and struggles to breathe through one of his nostrils. You were someone who was in this country illegally due to the deportation order and at the end of your sentence I expect you to be deported.”

Lucky Thandi, prosecuting, said Svabinskas was handed a deportation order as part of his punishment for an assault conviction in 2016. She said he had been turned away from the UK border at Calais on at least one occasion but had somehow managed to enter the UK illegally.

The prosecutor said the attack happened in West Park on November 23, 2023. Miss Thandi said the defendant, his then partner and the victim were all drinking and Svabinskas punched his partner during an argument and the victim “got in between them” to try and calm the situation.

He said: “The defendant began to repeatedly punch him and knocked him unconscious. He then picked up the victim’s bag, which contained bottles and a metal bike chain, and repeatedly hit him with that.

“He used such force that the vodka bottle inside the bag smashed and the bike chain almost snapped. The defendant and the woman then left him at the location.”

The prosecutor said the victim went to the QMC where the serious nature of his injuries were discovered. They included a badly broken nose and a brain injury.

In a victim impact statement, he told how he lost his job due to his sleeping pattern being so affected as he was unable to sleep at night and used alcohol “as a coping mechanism". He said: “The scar is a permanent reminder of the assault. While I was working in McDonald's people would ask me what was wrong with my eye which would make me self-conscious.

“I am disgusted that someone could do something like this to me. He left the park knowing I was covered in blood and not knowing if I was going to be okay.

“The state he left me in meant that I could have died.” Svabinskas, of no fixed address and who was helped this week by a Lithuanian interpreter, previously pleaded guilty to assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and being in breach of the deportation order. He has three previous convictions in the UK for five offences including two counts of assault from 2015.

David Watts, mitigating, said his client was aware that he will be deported back to Lithuania at the end of his sentence. He said: “Mr Svabinskas really has no recollection of the incident and can provide no explanation as to why he attacked the victim. It was probably because of the alcohol (he had drank).”