An American man who cut a teenager’s face when he suddenly attacked her in a Huddersfield park has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.
Brennan Ball was found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court last November of assaulting the teenager causing her actual bodily harm on April 7 in Greenhead Park and possessing a knife in Bradford Road on April 12 when he was arrested.
The jurors heard Ball, then of Carlton Street, Fartown was friendly to begin with but then began behaving bizarrely doing handstands in front of the girl and the friend she was chatting to.
He then approached her and suddenly struck in the face with something small and metallic in his hand. She said he then aimed further blows towards her head and neck before he left.
She discovered she had a slash mark a few centimetres long to her face which had left a slight scar and some bruising to her neck and shoulder. The attack had happened in front of other people, including children using the park.
Appearing for sentence yesterday (Tues) the court heard from a consultant psychiatrist that 31-year-old Ball is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and requires further treatment for his delusions. He had initially sought asylum in this country but has now abandoned that application.
Keith Allen, representing Ball, argued a hospital order was not appropriate for the nature of the offence but Recorder Euan Duff disagreed and made a hospital order for him to be detained under section 37 of the Mental Health Act.
He also made an order under section 41 for it to be without time limit. The court heard a bed is available for him at Newton Lodge Hospital in Wakefield.
He said the victim was merely chatting to a friend when Ball launched a “completely unprovoked attack upon her.”
The jury had acquitted him of having a knife with him on that occasion, not being sure what he had used, but when he was arrested he did have a kitchen knife on him.
Recorder Duff said he was satisfied a restriction order was necessary since it was impossible to say how long he might constitute a danger.
He told Ball it was possible the authorities might investigate returning him to America now that he is no longer seeking asylum.
