An Ely man who was beaten, mugged and left for dead says he hopes his attackers will be prevented from assaulting anyone else.

Cambs Times: Tony Walton interviewed by ITV AngliaTony Walton interviewed by ITV Anglia (Image: Archant)

Tony Walton, 68, was walking home through Cherry Hill Park after a night out last October, when he was attacked by two men.

Lee Jones and Sebastian Yellowe both from Stevenage were sentenced today to a total of 25 years for robbery and GBH with intent at Norwich Crown Court.

Mr Walton says he’s got no memory of what happened between leaving the restaurant and waking up ten days later in hospital.

Of the injuries he sustained, he said: “Smashed face, my cheek bones were smashed, cuts on the forehead and on the chin, massive swelling of everything and brain damage.

“I had no memory from that point of coming out of the restaurant until I woke up in hospital ten days after that.

“I wasn’t aware of any of this when I woke up in hospital. It wasn’t until Angie [Tony’s wife] filled me in on exactly what had happened on the night.”

“I’ve got nothing against the guys really except I don’t want them to be able to do it to anyone else, so if they can be put away for a fair length of time that would suit me.”

Tony’s wife, Angie Walton, said: “In regards to the injury, Tony sustained a subarachnoid haemorrhage and bilateral frontal contusions of his brain.

“His left lens was dislocated and is embedded in the back of his eye and his bones and eye orbits were fractured. He sustained multiple lacerations as well so it was an extensive head injury really.”

The couple re lived their nightmare in an interview with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Mrs Walton said of the life threatening attack: “It was two men that had come to Ely from Stevenage, they were out that night and I believe they had a lot of alcohol and drugs within them.

“It was just a misfortune that Tony was coming down the same path that they were. I believe they knocked into one another and then they hurt him”, she added.

Mrs Walton believes the attack was very brutal.

“I think it was a lot of punching and kicking to his face and his head, and the reason behind it, only they really know. But afterwards, when they left him unconscious in the rain, they then robbed him and robbed him of his wedding ring, his credit card, his money.”

Having grown concerned about her husband’s whereabouts, Angie went out to search for her husband.

“At about 10pm Tony rang me from the restaurant to say that he was on his way home. By 11pm he hadn’t arrived – it was so unlike him. Then it led me to do a two-hour search in the dark, at night, in the rain for him. I couldn’t find him.

“I kept coming back to the house. I’d phoned the police. At about 00:30am, I went upstairs to our 17-year-old son and said I hadn’t searched one area of Ely that I didn’t want to go to at night on my own and James agreed to come with me, so we searched by torchlight and then at 01:15am we found Tony.”

James Walton, Tony’s son, recalled finding his dad.

“I got half way down the hill and heard a groan from a couple of yards from me. “There was a body on the floor and obviously it was raining, it was very dark and wet.

“I saw his face and I thought ‘mum, I’ve found someone but I don’t think its dad’. He added: “But I recognised him through what he was wearing, it was my father, it was a horrible, horrible sight.”