Victim of terrifying daylight robbery says attacker shouldn't have been jailed

Damian Slowik was punched and choked by 21-year-old Bailey Hanlon in a broad daylight robbery in Cardiff's Bute Park. Hanlon was this week locked up but his victim feels it won't help him

A man who was subjected to a terrifying daylight robbery has said his attacker should not be behind bars.

Damian Slowik, 32, was sitting on a bench in Cardiff's Bute Park when he was brutally attacked by 21-year-old Bailey Hanlon, who repeatedly punched him while an accomplice stole his bike. The incident unfolded near Cardiff Castle around 4pm on July 1.

Despite managing to hold Hanlon for about 15 minutes, both Hanlon and his accomplice Seren Hassan-Lowe, 19, managed to escape before the police arrived. Though left badly bruised, Mr Slowik said the worst impact has been on his mental health, and he has suffered panic attacks and taken antidepressants since the robbery.

Last week, Hassan-Lowe received a suspended sentence and rehabilitation activity, while Hanlon, who was also sentenced for driving offences, was given three years in a young offender's unit. But Mr Slowik, who never recovered his £1,000 bike and had to replace £300 glasses broken in the attack, said he would have preferred Hanlon to be ordered to do unpaid work and pay him compensation.

He told Wales Online: "He has already been locked up before. He left custody then went out and robbed a person. It seems he knows no other way than robbing people or participating in crime. I would like him to be ordered to go to work and get a taste of what it is like to be a man. A man is a working man, not one who robs people. Now your and my taxes have to sponsor his lifestyle in prison."

The Wetherspoons kitchen worker, who had saved up to afford his bike, doubts Hanlon's chances of rehabilitation due to widely known issues of drugs rampant in British prisons. He said: "It is easier to get drugs on the inside than outside. I'm just a bit sad because I don't know if he has family but at Christmas he will be surrounded by people taking drugs. He needs to be shown something different, how to earn money the legal way, how it is possible to have nice things. I want him to sweat and get callouses and see what it is like to pay taxes."

Mr Slowik, who was physically abused as a child and says he struggled at school in Poland due to ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), ended his education separated from other pupils because he was deemed a risk to others. Relating it to his own experiences, he said: "I could have ended up in prison but I left that life behind when I got on a plane as an 18-year-old with just a backpack. I started washing dishes in a pub in Cardiff with no English language skills. It cost me to be where I am. It is possible to leave everything behind, even the people who hurt you, but you need to want to change. Nobody is going to force you."

He previously expressed frustration that police allegedly did not arrive at Bute Park until 40 minutes after a witness' 999 call despite the Cardiff Central police station being a short walk away. But he praised South Wales Police's work in catching the two culprits, and said "the investigation they did was great". Damian added: "I would like to say a big thanks to police and the witness who stayed with me when most people walked away."

Hanlon, from the Cardiff suburb of Heath, admitted the robbery as well as a series of offences from an incident six days after the Bute Park attack — taking a vehicle without consent, dangerous driving, failing to provide a blood sample, and driving while disqualified. He had stolen an Audi and driven it along Grangetown's Clare Road before crashing. Within three months of release from his three-year term in a young offender unit he must pay a £228 victim services surcharge.

Hassan-Lowe, 19, from Grangetown, admitted robbery. She was sentenced to 12 months in a young offender unit suspended for two years as well as 25 days of rehabilitation activity and a £187 victim services surcharge.