Dad-of-seven tells police he "got the wrong man" after battering pensioner senseless in Preston pub toilet
A thug who battered a pensioner senseless in a Preston pub toilet realised later he had got the wrong man.
Weeks after the attack Edward Killeen bumped into his victim in another city centre alehouse and bought him a pint “saying ‘sorry’ over and over again”, a court heard.
Killeen handed himself into police after admitting it was all a case of mistaken identity, said barrister Rachel Oakdene, prosecuting at the city’s Crown Court.
The 48-year-old father-of-seven pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent when he appeared before Recorder Michael Blakey.
He was given an eight-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to spend 120 days on an alcohol monitoring programme. He was also ordered to pay £200 in compensation to the innocent man he attacked.
Ms Oakdene said the victim had been having a quiet drink in Hogarths pub in Church Street and had gone to the toilet. While he was in there he was attacked by a man he didn’t recognise and punched repeatedly in the face.
He later told police the man, eventually identified as Killeen, shouted: “I’ve got you now” and then said something about an incident in the former Selborne pub in the city more than 20 years earlier.
The victim was forced back into a cubicle and Killeen continued to punch him. He tried to explain he had no idea what he was talking about and he must have the wrong person, but Killeen continued the onslaught even when he was on the floor.
The assault eventually ended when the victim said he had had enough. He told police he had never seen his attacker before and hadn’t been in the Selborne since the 1970s or 1980s. The pub shut in 2003.
Officers arrived at Hogarths to find the man badly injured with a large open gash across the top of his eye and nose. The victim was taken to hospital where he was treated for his injuries.
Unemployed building worker Killeen, of Wood Green, Leyland, handed himself in at Preston Police Station and gave a “no comment” interview. He was picked out by his victim at an identity parade.
Ms Oakdene said around two months later the victim was out for a drink in the Northern Way pub in Friargate, Preston when he noticed a man standing to the left of him. He recognised him as the man who had assaulted in.
“The man kept saying he was sorry over and over again,” said the lawyer. “It seems that the complainant accepted a drink from the defendant as some sort of apology. He took the drink as it seemed the right thing to do. Then he (Killeen) left.”
In a victim impact statement read out in court the victim said he still feels anxious when he goes out and is “always looking over my shoulder”.
“I shouldn’t have to do this,” he added. “I’ve had to change my routine and avoid going in certain areas (of Preston). I have a scar over my left eye which I will have for the rest of my life.”
Ms Oakdene argued the assault was a persistent one and in the victim’s words “a relentless attack”.
Ellie McManus, for Killeen, said her client had himself been the victim of an assault in 2024 and following that attack he had lost his mother. The two incidents had triggered depression. His coping mechanism, she said, was to turn to drink.
“When he is in drink he is much more likely to lose control of his emotions,” she said. “He has acknowledged just how reckless he was and (what) the severe consequences of his actions were.”
She said the attack he had suffered had left him with a damaged left hand – he had lost his little finger – and he was unable to work. But the judge responded by saying “he was still able to punch a man.”
Ms McManus said Killeen recognised how harmful his drinking had been. “He is truly and deeply sorry for his actions and the impact this has had on his victim.”
Recorder Blakey told Killeen: “He was in a public house minding his own business and he went to the toilet and you followed him. You believed him to be someone who he wasn’t.”
He said the victim was a defenceless individual, he had done nothing to Killeen and it had been an “utterly unprovoked attack”.
He told him he did not set a good example to his seven children “standing in front of me in a dock at Preston for violence”.
Killeen was also ordered to complete 25 rehabilitation activity days and warned by the judge that should he fail to comply with any of the conditions of huis suspended sentence he could be sent straight to jail.