1 week Ago By [email protected] (Sean Axtell)
This is the moment before a drunk baseball bat-wielding thug unleashed a ferocious attack on strangers in a high street. Zak Clarke suddenly brandished the weapon before repeatedly raining blows on his victims during a prolonged assault in Ramsgate. The 25-year-old broke John Dunlop’s arm as he tried shielding himself from the force of the assault, while Timothy Hancock suffered abrasions to his head.
Mr Dunlop said in a victim impact statement at Canterbury Crown Court the ordeal has prevented him from being able to go out in the town. Placing Clarke behind bars as he wept, a judge stressed it was “abundantly clear” that he “presents a danger to the public” when he drinks. CCTV footage played in court showed the perpetrator walking along High Street with three others around pub kicking out time on a Tuesday.
In the clip, Clarke suddenly turned around, pulled the baseball bat from behind him, and then confronted Mr Dunlop. He then lunged at his first victim, striking him on the arm as he tried to defend himself, then landed another blow, breaking his left forearm. Once Clarke had chased Mr Dunlop out of view, another CCTV camera captured him swinging the weapon.
He could then be seen speaking with Mr Hancock in nearby Harbour Street before assaulting him with the bat. Prosecutor Caroline Knight said during the hearing on April 16 that both men were “entirely unknown to the defendant”, who had carried out a “random, persistent and prolonged attack”. “The defendant was arrested shortly after these events, he was extremely drunk, it took a number of officers to arrest him.
“In the police interview the next day, he said he could not remember anything he had done or anything that had been said,” she added. The court heard Mr Dunlop suffered an “extremely swollen” and fractured left arm, requiring treatment with a cast and sling. In a victim impact statement given shortly after the attack last June, Mr Dunlop described how Clarke’s actions had hindered his ability to carry out day-to-day activities, as he is left-handed.
“It has been very difficult as I normally care for my partner, and the cast on my left hand makes this very hard,” he said. Clarke, who was 24 at the time of the assault, has 10 previous convictions for 22 offences, including seven for battery. Kerry Waitt, defending, described his client as “damaged and vulnerable and in need of help and support”.
Since relocating from Kent to Hastings, he said, Clarke had disconnected from “old associates with whom he was taking drugs and drinking to excess”. Mr Waitt read a letter from Clarke’s father, who said: “Since he has been with me, he has not done anything wrong, he has listened to me. “He also helps his grandmother, who is disabled and has difficulties getting about.
” Dressed in a black coat, Clarke wept in the dock as Mr Waitt urged Judge Edmund Fowler to suspend the impending prison sentence. But on handing down an immediate 19-month custodial sentence, Judge Fowler said: “I have watched the CCTV footage, it is abundantly clear when you are in drink, you present a danger to the public. “The ferocity with which you swung that bat could have had grave consequences indeed”.
Clarke, formerly of Shaftsbury Street in Ramsgate and also Herne Bay, pleaded guilty at Margate Magistrates’ Court in January to wounding Mr Dunlop without intent, causing actual bodily harm to Mr Hancock, and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place..
