Heartbroken mum slams ‘disgusting’ two-year jail sentence of Worksop thug

A devastated Worksop mum has slammed the two-year jail sentence handed to a vicious thug who left her son for dead in a town centre attack.
Steven Paul HancockSteven Paul Hancock
Steven Paul Hancock

Unemployed Steven Hancock, aged 23, who has 17 previous convictions for 38 different offences, left victim Daniel Cutts, of Worksop, in a coma for more than two months after a single punch assault him on a night out in the town.

He was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court after admitting a charge of causing grievous bodily harm at a previous hearing.

The attack happened in Gateford Road, in the early hours of Saturday, June 20.

Alison Rodgers, Mr Cutts’ mum, said: “It is absolutely disgusting. Where is the justice in the world? It is very upsetting and frustrating.

“Daniel is very upset at this sentence.

“He has been left with life-altering injuries.

Mr Cutts, a father-of-three, suffered a double haematoma and was placed in a medically-induced coma after the attack.

He has had two operations, which included having a part of his skull removed, and is set to have a metal plate inserted into his head to protect his brain.

Miss Rodgers said: “We are all shocked.”

“I still cannot believe someone has done this to my son.”

The court heard Hancock had been thrown out of a nightclub in Sheffield before travelling back to the Corner House in Worksop to carry on drinking with a friend.

His friend had also encountered Mr Cutts earlier in the night, with the two exchanging words, before shaking hands and going their separate ways.

Hancock inflicted the right-handed punch, which knocked Mr Cutts unconscious, after becoming involved in an altercation with him in which the two men were ’sparring’.

After inflicting the near fatal blow, CCTV footage showed Hancock, of Yeoman Close, Worksop, trying to pick Mr Cutts up, before fleeing the scene.

An eyewitness apparently heard Hancock say: “I did not mean to do it.”

Mr Cutts was also “dropped” to the floor a second time, when a passer-by tried to help but he was “too heavy”.

A medical consultant dismissed claims by the defence that Mr Cutts’ injuries could have been caused by this, rather than the punch.

Vanessa Marshall, mitigating, said Hancock was “terribly sorry”.

She said: “It has shocked him to the core.

Sentencing, Mr Recorder Richard Swain said: “The injury is as serious as one could imagine.”

Hancock initially tried to pick Mr Cutts up off the floor, but then fled the scene.

One eyewitness heard him say: “I did not mean to do it.”

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