Halifax jeweller '˜became an old man' after vicious beating by doorstep thug

Colin Butlin was left with serious facial injuries after being attacked outside his home

Colin Butlin was 89 when Slovakian Viktor Lakatos, wielding a knuckle-duster, attacked him from behind, as he opened the door to his Halifax home in November 2014.

An inquest into Mr Butlin’s death heard “blows were raining down upon him and he was defenseless” and that he was left on the ground “bleeding heavily”.

Lakatos was later handed an 18-year-extended sentence for the vicious beating, which left the father-of-three with wounds to his forehead, which had to be stitched as well as extensive bruising and a fractured nose.

Slovakian thug Viktor Lakatos launched a brutal knuckle-duster attack on an 89-year-old jeweller

An inquest heard that the attack had more lasting effect on Mr Butlin, who died last August.

In a statement read to Halifax Coroner’s Court, his daughter Linda Butlin, 52, said: “It definitely affected him, he was really stressed out because of it.”

“He turned into more of an old man.”

The court heard Mr Butlin, who was 90 when he passed away at his home, didn’t like to leave the house, became less sociable, and had contracted shingles since in the months following the assault.

It was Miss Butlin who found her father lying half out of a partly-run bath on the day of his death, after she had brought him his dinner.

Mr Butlin had most likely started to run a bath when he got into it, slipped, knocked himself unconscious and the then asphyxiated because of the position he fell, the inquest heard.

The post mortem into his tragic death stated that while the attack my have left Mr Butlin less sociable and depressed it “did not play a direct part in his ultimate demise”.

Passing a verdict of accidental death, coroner Oliver Longstaff told the court “no gentleman his age should suffer such a vicious and calculated assault”.

He told his daughter, who attended the proceedings, that he was entitled to live out his life in peace and safety.

“The years of peace and safety were shattered by a cowardly and brutal assault,” he said.

Mr Longstaff added: “The vicious assault he suffered played absolutely no part in his death.”

The cause of death was given as positional asphyxia.