In a Halifax bar fight, a man Reece Drahosz knocked a woman unconscious, leaving her with a severe brain injury.
On August 22, 2020, the woman was out with friends and at La Salsa when a fight broke out and Reece Drahosz, 27, knocked her to the ground. Drahosz claimed he got involved in the altercation while out with a different party that also included his mother and girlfriend.
On Friday, Bradford Crown Court was informed that video of some of the altercation showed Drahosz dragging one woman across the floor before tossing her onto a chair. Witnesses, according to the prosecutor, saw Drahosz snatching the woman and “dragging her around the bar area before slamming her against seats,” Daniel Cordey told the court.
He then attacked a another woman, knocking her out while a companion tried to save her.
Mr Cordey said: “More footage from a mobile phone shows him pulling a woman from his mum and while she is lying on the floor face up he drops down his elbows hard to her face and head area three times, rendering her unconscious before he is pulled away from her.”
When the woman was rushed to the hospital, it was discovered that she had a hematoma, a haemorrhage, and bleeding in and around her brain. It was necessary to remove her lip piercing because it had gotten stuck in her skin during the attack.
The woman’s speech was remained slurred, the court heard, despite scans taken on August 25, 2020 showing signs of recovery. She left the hospital on her own accord but kept her appointments.
In her victim impact statement, which was condensed for the court, the woman recalled being told by the neurologist they were “happy she was awake” after waking up in the hospital. She also recalled discharging herself because she was denied visitors during Covid, which “heightened her anxiety,” and she did not want to pass away in the hospital.
After the attack, the woman said she was unable to sleep and was prohibited from flying; about a month later, she went out but had to leave early since her brain injury had caused her to feel dizzy and slur her speech. She claimed that because she doesn’t go out much, her social life has suffered, and she now sees a therapist.
Stephen Welford, who is mitigating, claimed that Drahosz has no prior convictions and has a good reputation. He claimed to have had a “very terrible upbringing” during which he witnessed and experienced domestic abuse. “What this is is women battling,” Mr. Welford said. “Whether it was right or wrong that his mother was the victim matters not—he did what he did and should not have gone as far as he did.”
The court was informed that Drahosz had entered pleas of guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm prior to the already scheduled trial as well as to grievous bodily harm at a plea, trial, and preparation hearing.
Read More: Man stabbed to death in Parkfield View house at Wakefield
