Video: Police hunt cigar-smoking man whose punch ‘permanently disfigured’ Islington victim’s jaw in Brick Lane assault
Police are looking for this man afte an assault in Brick Lane left an Islington man with potentially permanent facial nerve damage Picture: Met Police - Credit: Archant
Police are hunting a cigar-smoking suspect whose single punch left his victim with a “permanently disfigured jaw” and potentially permanent facial nerve damage.
The renewed appeal for information comes after CCTV cameras captured the assault in Brick Lane when the suspect fractured a 43-year-old Islington man’s jaw.
Victim Jeremy Potter was hospitalised for three months and required intensive surgery after the assault, which he said he was subjected to because he asked his attacker to apologise for barging into his girlfriend.
“I was just doing what I thought was right by asking for an apology for my girlfriend,” he said. “As a result I’ve got a permanently disfigured jaw and am having to come to terms with life without feeling in my lower face.”
Cameras showed the balding suspect walk into the victim’s girlfriend, refuse to apologise when asked and then punch Jeremy in the face.
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The suspect is a white man in his mid-40s and is 5ft 10ins tall with short brown hair circling the sides of his head and a brown beard.
During the assault on Tuesday, November 1, 2016, he was wearing large, black-rimmed glasses with a grey jacket over a red top. He wore beige trousers with brown shoes, was carrying a shopping bag bearing the label Religion and was smoking a cigar.
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Jeremy, whose intensive surgery took four days to complete, may suffer a permanent loss of feeling in his lower face after the attack, which Det Con Lydia Stephens from Tower Hamlets CID said was likely to be a life-changing encounter.
“This was a violent and unprovoked attack in the middle of a busy street,” she said. “The victim was seriously hurt and his injuries are likely to impact him for the rest of his life. If you recognise the man in this footage, I urge you to get in contact with us.”
Anybody with information or who witnessed the attack is urged to call police on 101. You can also call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
