A former millionaire who ended up begging on the streets with a heroine addiction has been jailed for beating an innocent man in front of his 12-year-old daughter.
Dominic Hudson, 47, a businessman who was once worth ‘in excess of £1million’, assaulted Neil McCann after the father saw the criminal and his friend acting aggressively towards two women on the street.
Mr McCann, who is in his 40s, was savagely punched and kicked by Hudson and Paul Bloomfield, also 47. The victim suffered a 20cm cut to his left cheek and a 3cm deep wound to his chin.
Hudson and Bloomfield initially denied wrongdoing before both admitting causing grievous bodily harm upon Mr McCann and having an offensive weapon. They were each jailed for 40 months.
Dominic Hudson, 47, (pictured) a businessman who was once worth ‘in excess of £1million’, assaulted Neil McCann after the father saw the criminal and his friend acting aggressively towards two women on the street
Paul Bloomfield, 47, (pictured) was also involved in the attack. The pair savagely punched and kicked Mr McCann in Sale, Greater Manchester
Mr McCann was attacked last August in Sale, in Trafford, Greater Manchester, while walking home with his 12-year-old daughter Marie.
He was targeted after he saw Hudson and Bloomfield tussling with the two women on the opposite side of the road and tried to intervene.
Hudson was shouting at one of the women whilst Bloomfield had his arm around the other’s woman’s throat and had her in headlock, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Mr McCann shouted over to the two women to ask if they were ok, but Bloomfield told him to ‘f**k off’ before he and Hudson crossed the road towards him.
The concerned bystander told Marie to walk away as blade-wielding Hudson and Bloomfield approached him. Mr McCann was ‘concerned’ for his daughter but he did not want to ‘turn his back on the two males’, the prosecutor explained.
Bloomfield ‘got into Mr McCann’s personal space’ and then punched him in the left side of his face.
‘Mr McCann could see his daughter was there and told her to go but Bloomfield punched him again and,’ Saul Brodie, prosecuting, told the court.
‘Then Hudson struck him and the victim felt blood running down his face. He assumed he had been cut with the blade.’
The two men pushed Mr McCann to the floor and repeatedly punched and kicked him. At one point, Bloomfield was completely on top of him and ‘weighing him down with his full body weight’.
Mr McCann then punched back, managing to get himself up, but the assailants continued after him and followed him all the way home.
‘When he went through his front gate Hudson caught up with him and spat on his left shoulder whilst Bloomfield spat in his face,’ Mr Brodie said.
‘They fled when they heard police sirens. The attack was completely unprovoked.’
Police were able to track down the criminals using photographs Mr McCann took during the attack.
Hudson was detained nearby but Bloomfield barricaded himself inside his flat. When police forced entry Bloomfield deliberately spat blood and saliva at a policewoman saying: ‘I’m going to cause pure s**t!’
Mr McCann, in a statement to police, said the incident left him ‘terrified’ and feeling as if he is ‘no longer safe in my own home.’
‘The ordeal has affected my university studies and even taking my daughter to school is really stressful,’ Mr McCann said. ‘I can’t go to bed anymore unless my door is locked. I no longer feel safe in own home
‘I was terrified I would be seriously injured. I have had difficulty smiling and talking and had to see a specialist.’
The father said he ‘just wanted to protect’ but Hudson and Bloomfield ‘seemed to disregard the fact she was there.’
‘They were significantly bigger than me and they had weapons. I was scared for my life and that of my daughter. I was only trying to help someone but I will be more reluctant to help others in future,’ he said.
Dominic Hudson is pictured with his son Shaun who is currently serving ten years jail over a stabbing
The attackers both initially denied wrongdoing.
Hudson, who had just been dumped by his girlfriend, said he was trying to withdraw from heroin at the time of the beating and said: ‘I’m rattling my back out. I can’t think right now so I don’t know what happened.’
The former millionaire holidayed in the Philippines and Majorca until his businesses failed in 2010. He developed a severe drug addiction in 2016 and had been drinking vodka in the run up to the attack.
He kept a knuckleduster at his home whilst a pair of blood stained scissors were found at the scene.
Hudson ultimately admitted causing grievous bodily harm upon Mr McCann and having an offensive weapon.
He had 98 offences on his record including burglary, drugs offences, driving offences. In 2021 he was given a community order for helping his son carry out the attack on the Greggs bakery.
It emerged the feckless father of one had even encouraged his own son Shaun into a life of crime with the youngster getting hooked on cocaine at the age of just 11.
In February last year Shaun, now 20, was jailed for ten years for stabbing a 16-year-old boy whilst shouting: ‘do you know who I am?’ during a random attack outside a tram station and also for another knifing which occurred when his father had an argument with the manager of a Greggs bakery.
At the time Hudson had to be thrown out of court for disruptive behaviour for which his son then apologised.
Bloomfield who also admitted assaulting an emergency worker had 164 offences on his record including violence, knife possession, burglary and driving offences.
In mitigation for Hudson, defence counsel Patrick Buckley said: ‘He was once a very successful person worth in excess of £1million and involved in business but from those heights he went very quickly to fighting in the street and begging for heroin.
‘He recognised his behaviour was utterly unacceptable and wants to work towards a drug free future. However that is only going to be achieved by third party intervention at a very high level.’
Sentencing, Judge Nigel Bird told Hudson and Bloomfield: ‘Mr McCann was a concerned citizen who noticed your companions were in distress. He shouted over to them to ask if all was well but you each took grave exception to that. You gave chase and subjected him to what became a prolonged, unpleasant event in his life.’
Both men have been sentenced to 40 months behind bars.
