2009/10/07
A HOUSE-warming party in an East London suburb turned violent when two men burst into the owner’ s bedroom and attacked him so badly he had to go to hospital for 26 stitches to his head.
Still battered and bruised from Friday’s ordeal, Sikhander Coopoo said yesterday after being released from Life St Dominic’s Hospital that he did not know why he was attacked in his Dorchester Heights home.
“I do not know what I would do if I saw them again; I just want them to be locked up so that they do not attack somebody else again,” said Coopoo.
Yesterday, a 20-year-old man and a 27-year-old man, briefly appeared in the East London Magistrate’s Court on charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
They were not asked to plead and were released on warning. The case was postponed to December 10 to allow them to arrange legal representation as they told the court they would hire their own lawyers.
Speaking from the scene of the attack, Coopoo, 36-year-old co-owner of a communications company, said he had moved into his home in August and did not know all his neighbours, so on Friday evening, he threw a small house-warming party to get to know them.
He said the two men had briefly joined the party before the attack. He assumed they were neighbours, but found out after the attack that they did not even stay in his neighbourhood.
“I had just gone into my room to sort out my laptop and the next thing I saw were the two men. They said nothing while they beat me up with their hands,” Coopoo said.
He recalled two blows to his head. One of the wounds needed 18 stitches and another gash at the back of his head required eight stitches. Coopoo’s right eye was also blackened and he had multiple bruises on his back and arms. “Because of this (attack) I now have to lie in bed because my eye barely opens. I cannot even sit up straight for long as my back is very sore.”
Coopoo’s friend Orleen Peters , who rescued him from the two men, said she too was attacked and had bruises on one arm and on her back.
“I do not know who those guys were and why were they attacking us. There was too much violence. After I had taken Sikhander from the room the attack started again in the lounge and I was also beaten up,” she said.
Peters’ sister ran outside to alert other neighbours and the assailants ran away. - By SIBONGILE MKANI
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