Giles BrownA YOUNG Briton has slammed the authorities after he was blinded in an eye following a brutal attack outside a Marbella night club.
Clinton Fisher, 23, is furious after police apparently allowed his attacker to walk free after the New Year’s Eve assault.
In a staggering lapse of procedure, he claims police merely took an email address and phone number of one suspect, following the beer bottle assault outside Terra Blues bar in Puerto Banus.
Unbelievably he was not even forced to give a statement and the former expat has had to wait over nine months before the first court hearing, due to take place in October.
The appeal follows widespread anger over a brutal assault that also left 15-year-old Nicole Zanlith blind in one eye.
The Dane was attacked in Marbella, last month, as she waited for a taxi outside a nightclub.
Fisher, who lives in London, was sparked into action after reading about Zanlith’s appalling injuries, inflicted by a group of Moroccan youths.
The recruitment consultant, who went to school in Marbella, had been out with friends celebrating New Year’s Eve 2012, when the attack happened.
The group had been enjoying a few pre-club drinks where they began chatting to two Moroccans in the small bar.
Photographs were even taken with the pair, but the night soon turned ugly.
“After midnight I went outside to wish a friend Happy New Year,” Clinton told the Olive Press.
“I left my brother sitting on the sofas at the back of the bar with one of the girls in our group.
“When he went to the toilet, one of the guys sat down by the girl and started touching her leg and making inappropriate suggestions.”
Clinton added: “My brother came back and asked him what the hell he was doing.
“The Moroccan stood up and without saying anything headbutted him.
“I don’t know if the guy was on drugs or drunk.”
Clinton’s brother ran out of the bar with blood pouring from his face with the pair following.
Soon there was a group of us standing outside arguing and Clinton went over to see what the trouble was.
“The last thing that I remember is one of the pair smashing a bottle and coming towards me with it,” continued Clinton.
When he came to, he was sitting on the pavement in a pool of blood surrounded by friends and police. “I could only see out of my right eye and I knew that something wasn’t right”.
Incredibly, one of the attackers came back to be grabbed by his friends and detained by police.
But not before he boasted: “You shouldn’t have got involved. This is what happens when you mess with us”
After being rushed to hospital, the seriousness of Clinton’s injuries soon became clear.
The bottle had sliced the left side of his face, including the eyeball.
“The doctors said that they couldn’t save my left eye and would have to remove it immediately.
However his parents decided to fly him back to the UK on New Year’s Day for a second opinion.
Doctors in London described it as the ‘most severe eye injury’ they had ever seen.
“The damage is so bad that my pupil is spiked like a cat’s eye, and there is still a danger that the eye might collapse completely.”
Some nine months later and he can only really see out of his right eye, despite three operations on his face.
Incredibly police released the attacker the day after.
“They just took his email and mobile number” he said. “They didn’t get a statement from him and didn’t get one from me either as they claim they couldn’t find me – but I was in hospital that night.”
Clinton is due to appear in Marbella court on October 2 with three witnesses for a committal hearing.
But, he insists the hearing is set to go ahead minus the two assailants.
“My lawyer has told me that police have been unable to trace them and although we have one name and a business address in Tangier we don’t think
either will turn up,” he said.
“After reading about the attack on Nicole Zanlith in the Olive Press I wanted to come forward to tell my story. Young people need to be warned
about the dangers in the Port.
“They need to be really careful who they start talking to on nights out because you never know what could happen, as I have discovered.
“It’s been a hugely emotional and traumatic year for me, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
There have been many attacks on the coast mainly in the port by Moroccans who seem to be able to get away with it. It seems they are the new Mafia. My daughter go’s to the port quite a lot but I am know having second thoughts about her going there. The police need to take this more seriously now, otherwise in years to come Marbella is going to have a bigger problem on their hands. Some Friends were here in the summer and on their last night there was a problem with some Moroccan boys and the friend was cut with a knife. A ambulance was called but half way to the hospital was told he had to get a cab to the hospital. WTF is going on here in Spain, its getting from bad to worse.
Me and my wife are often out in the port.
5 years till now and the only people we had on several occasions problems with are Moroccans.
Probably they think they can get away with everything, just start a fight and run away to Morocco.