'Their sentence won't teach them': anger of bus bell attack victim as trio are spared jail

 
Attackers: the three teenagers set upon Bronson Maisey for asking them to stop pressing the bell to get off a bus
Anna Dubuis20 February 2014

A passenger attacked by three teenagers after he asked them to stop pressing the bell on a night bus today hit out after they were allowed to walk free from court.

Bronson Maisey, 40, had his front tooth knocked out in the assault on the N25 bus to Stratford when the trio pounced on him.

In front of a dozen other passengers, he was punched and slapped and had to cling to a pole as his attackers tried to drag him off the bus.

He spoke out after his attackers were handed suspended sentences and each ordered to pay him £500 in compensation.

Mr Maisey, from Walthamstow, told the Standard: “At the end of the day £500 is nothing and won’t teach them. It isn’t a just sentence. It doesn’t cover my dental work at all. I’ve already spent a couple hundred pounds on the dentist and I need an implant.

“Realistically they have cost me my job and my relationship. I didn’t go to work for a couple of months because I was really self-conscious of the gap in my teeth, and the attack made me miserable and led to a break-up.

Victim: Bronson Maisey, 40, had his front tooth knocked out in the assault

“Those men had a complete lack of respect for anybody.”

Mr Masiey, a security officer, said the attack came “completely out of the blue”.

“One of them kept pressing the button to stop the bus and I said ‘please stop, it’s not necessary’.

“They looked at me and suddenly were on top of me. It was such an extreme reaction. I got up as quickly as I could and tried to defend myself but there were three of them. They just carried on and on. They tried to drag me off the bus and luckily I managed to hold on. I think that saved me.”

He said despite there being plenty of people on the bus that night in December 2012, no one came to his aid.

“Not one single person helped me. Everyone just stayed back. I was angry at them. It was only the bus driver who reacted and called the police immediately,” he said.

The three teenagers ran off but were tracked down by police following appeals for information.

Shaqueil Samuels, 19, Abebambo Karumwi, 18 and Roland Mubenga, 19, were sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court this week.

The court heard how Samuels had repeatedly punched a passenger on a train going from Ilford to Liverpool Street just three days before his attack on Mr Maisey.

Hamadi Nebili, 49, was left with serious head wounds and required stitching up.

Samuels, of Manor Park, pleaded guilty to two charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and was handed a two year suspended sentence and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and pay his two victims £500 each.

Mubenga, of Gants Hill, and Karumi, also of Manor Park, were convicted of one count each of causing ABH.

Mubenga received a one year suspended sentence and Karumwi 15 months, also suspended. They were ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work and pay Mr Maisey £500 each.

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