A man who feared for his life when he was victim to a broad daylight robbery has voiced his disappointment at the sentence handed down to his attacker. Damian Slowik, 32, was sitting on a bench in Cardiff’s Bute Park when 21-year-old Bailey Hanlon repeatedly punched him while an accomplice made off with his bike.
Hanlon placed Mr Slowik in a chokehold at around 4pm on July 1 in an area of the park near Cardiff Castle. The victim then managed to restrain the attacker for around 15 minutes but Hanlon and his accomplice Seren Hassan-Lowe, 19, were able to flee before police turned up. Although badly bruised, Mr Slowik said the worst impact has been on his mental health. He has been experiencing panic attacks and taking antidepressants since the robbery.
Last week Hassan-Lowe was handed a suspended sentence and rehabilitation activity while Hanlon — who was also being sentenced for driving offences — got three years in a young offender unit. But Mr Slowik, who never saw his £1,000 bike again and had to replace £300 glasses that were broken in the attack, said he would have preferred Hanlon to be ordered to do unpaid work and to pay him compensation.
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“He has already been locked up before,” said Mr Slowik in reference to Hanlon’s 18-month sentence from last year for driving a stolen Mercedes into a house while high on heroin and crack cocaine. “He left custody then went out and robbed a person. It seems he knows no other way than robbing people or participating in crime. I would like him to be ordered to go to work and get a taste of what it is like to be a man. A man is a working man, not one who robs people. Now your and my taxes have to sponsor his lifestyle in prison.”
The Wetherspoon kitchen worker, who had saved a long time to afford his bike, feels sceptical that Hanlon will be rehabilitated in custody given the well-publicised recent issues with drugs flooding Welsh jails. “It is easier to get drugs on the inside than outside. I’m just a bit sad because I don’t know if he has family but at Christmas he will be surrounded by people taking drugs. He needs to be shown something different, how to earn money the legal way, how it is possible to have nice things. I want him to sweat and get callouses and see what it is like to pay taxes.”
As a child Mr Slowik experienced physical abuse and struggled at his school in Poland due to ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). He ended his education segregated from other pupils because he was deemed a risk to others. “I could have ended up in prison but I left that life behind when I got on a plane as an 18-year-old with just a backpack. I started washing dishes in a pub in Cardiff with no English language skills. It cost me to be where I am. It is possible to leave everything behind, even the people who hurt you, but you need to want to change. Nobody is going to force you.”
Mr Slowik previously aired frustration that police allegedly did not arrive at Bute Park until 40 minutes after a witness’ 999 call despite the Cardiff Central police station being a short walk away. But he praised South Wales Police’s work in catching the two culprits. “The investigation they did was great,” he said. “I would like to say a big thanks to police and the witness who stayed with me when most people walked away.”
Hanlon, of Whitchurch Road in Heath, admitted the robbery as well as a series of offences from an incident six days after the Bute Park attack — taking a vehicle without consent, dangerous driving, failing to provide a blood sample, and driving while disqualified. He had stolen an Audi and driven it along Grangetown’s Clare Road before crashing. Within three months of release from his three-year term in a young offender unit he must pay a £228 victim services surcharge.
Hassan-Lowe, 19, of Watkiss Way in Grangetown, admitted robbery. She was sentenced to 12 months in a young offender unit suspended for two years as well as 25 days of rehabilitation activity and a £187 victim services surcharge. You can read Mr Slowik’s full description of the robbery from our previous interview here.
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