Family of Wroughton hammer attack victim speaks out

5:02pm Friday 9th May 2008

The younger brother of a schoolboy battered to the brink of death with a claw hammer has described the day he found him in a pool of blood as "the worst ever".

Joseph Webster, 13, said his brother, Henry, now 17, had changed completely since he was set upon by a gang of Asian youths on the tennis court of Ridgeway School near Swindon, Wiltshire.

Speaking after 13 young males were sentenced for the attack, Joseph - flanked by his tearful brother - said: "It was the worst day ever when I found my brother, Henry, lying in a pool of blood on the school tennis courts.

"Since then everything has changed. Henry has been really ill, he is different, he sometimes gets very grumpy and he is always tired.

"We couldn't go to school for nearly all of last year and we miss our old friends and our old lives.

"Now that the criminal court cases have finished, I hope things will be less stressful and Henry will feel better and be able to work hard at school again."

During the hearing at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Carol Hagen criticised Ridgeway School for failing to monitor the tennis court on the night of Henry's attack.

Henry's mother, Liz, supported the judge's comments, saying: "It was fantastic to get that acknowledgement. It has strengthened our resolve to go on and get something from this. There are no winners.

"My son should have been safe in that school," she added. "I hope every school learns something from what happened to Henry."