South Yorkshire Man Embarks On Quest For Justice

A South Yorkshire man has begun a long, audacious task of trying to clear his name after being wrongfully accused by police. Mr Michael Dillon from Barnsley was taken into custody after being smashed in the face and on the head with a baseball bat by an intruder at his home. The victim believes he was bundled down the stairs and outside where several of his neighbours witnessed what happened next.

It is alleged the man repeatedly beat the victim in an attack said to have lasted seven or eight minutes in the front garden of his home. When the police eventually arrived, Michael was found covered in blood and was arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly. He was never charged.

Nobody has ever been brought to justice for the attack. Michael has made several complaints, including to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, about his wrongful arrest, but they have come to nothing.

“I need justice for what happened to me.”

That's according to Michael Dillon, 61, of Worsbrough Bridge, who has now been left with epilepsy and is unable to work. He also said his attacker, a man he had at the time never seen before, was an ex-partner of his girlfriend at the time.

“He was on my landing, and I said ‘could you leave please, I don’t know you’. Next thing he smashed me in the face and then hit me on the head with a baseball bat. “I don’t remember anything after that, the rest came from witnesses.” Michael said he believes he was bundled down the stairs and outside, where several neighbours described the attack continuing after Michael came ‘flying out of the house’ backwards.

He began a case with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme which was heard at a tribunal in 2009. He has been in touch with Mick Clapham who was his local MP at the time who had helped put him in touch with Raleys Solicitors and a barrister was instructed on his behalf.

The case was adjourned, and when the final hearing came, his barrister, with whom Michael had a good working relationship, was not available and another barrister stood in.

Now retired, Mr Clapham said he remembered the case well and said it was a sad story. “He definitely had a case,” he told the Chronicle this week. “It’s absolutely terrible the injuries he suffered. “On the day he had a different barrister, Michael went off on a tangent in the hearing and didn’t do himself any good. Sadly he was unable to convince the judge.

“I believe it might have been a different outcome if it had been the barrister he had been working with. We don’t know that, we can’t know that, but I feel he might not have let Michael go off on a tangent like he did.

“I think it would be very difficult to get that case back on its feet now.”

Michael is now being supported by Ben Whitehead, of Legalitic Consulting, who is helping him progress his fight for justice. A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said:

“Investigations are rarely ‘closed’. Instead, they lay dormant pending further information coming to light that could enable our officers to apprehend suspects or identify further lines of enquiry. “

If more information comes to light in this case, it will of course be examined thoroughly in the appropriate way and taken in to consideration.

The whole experience has been very long and traumatic for Michael as he has come up against many obstacles along the way including people not believing his story even though he had witnesses to back up his claims. Hopefully he will soon be able to get justice for what happened to him and be able to overcome the traumatic after effects he experiences today.