Double Amputee Mugged Hours After Waking from 6-Week Coma

A double amputee was mugged just hours after waking from a six-week coma and learning he had lost another leg to deep vein thrombosis.

Sixty-nine-year-old George McEwan-Jones, a double amputee, was in the hospital after his second leg amputation. After waking from a six-week coma, he headed down to a WH Smith store in the Manchester Royal Infirmary hospital to buy a drink, according to the Manchester Evening News. He noticed Liam Dallimore, 29, loitering with crutches outside of the store.

Dallimore asked if he could borrow money, to which McEwan-Jones responded he did not have any, the Manchester Evening News reports. Dallimore then asked the double-amputee if he could use his phone to call a taxi. McEwan-Jones was apprehensive about giving the stranger his phone, so he called a taxi company and informed the man what the cab fare would be, according to the outlet.

Assuming Dallimore had left, the 69-year-old wheeled into WH Smith to purchase his beverage, but Dallimore was waiting for McEwan-Jones to leave the shop. Upon exiting, Dallimore seized the handles of the chair and took the helpless McEwan-Jones to a secluded area of the parking lot, according to the Manchester Evening News.

Dallimore stole the debit card from the victim’s hand and shoved the chair down an incline. The victim was required to use what was left of a leg that was amputated a few years prior to soften his crash into the wall. According to the Manchester Evening News, upon impact, his old wound was opened, and his leg began to bleed.

“I wanted to get a drink because I was so thirsty. Then this man took hold of my wheelchair and rammed me into a wall,” McEwan-Jones recalled, according to the Sun. 

The attack caused significant setbacks in the victim’s recovery, according to the Manchester Evening News. He remained in the hospital for another four weeks and was unable to use his prosthetic for his reinjured left leg. 

Dallimore took off with the victim’s debit card and attempted to withdraw £270 from an ATM. He then bought cigarettes and received cash back at Morrison’s Supermarket, the Sun reports.

“I think it’s absolutely diabolical that someone could do this to a man with no legs,” McEwan-Jones said of the mugging, according to the Sun. 

“How am I supposed to defend myself?” he wondered. “This person must not have a heart to do such a diabolical thing.”

As Dallimore was holding crutches, his defense lawyer, Daniel Calder, argued that his client was at the hospital to receive medical attention for abscesses in his leg. “His attendance at the hospital was to ask for treatment in relation to abscesses to his legs,” Calder stated. “He would wish the court to accept that the offense was opportunistic rather than planned,” the Sun reports.

At sentencing, recorder Michael Maher said, “a doctor initially thought the defendant was acting in a selfless manner,” according to the Sun. “How wrong he was. This defendant in fact acted with utter contempt for Mr. McEwan-Jones, casting him aside as though he was a piece of rubbish.”

Dallimore was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail for the callous attack after “pleading guilty to one count of robbery and three counts of fraud,” according to the Manchester Evening News. 

Throughout his life, Dallimore has registered 41 convictions stemming from 77 total offenses, according to the Manchester Evening News. Last April, he was arrested after spitting at his mother’s face and stating, “I hope you get Covid,” according to the Daily Record. 

The Manchester Evening News reports Dallimore’s defense lawyer indicated that his client was “ashamed” and wished to apologize to McEwan-Jones.

“I am prepared to accept, somewhat reluctantly, that even this defendant realizes how despicable his actions were,” explained the judge, the Manchester Evening News reports.