Tom’s injuries have affected his ability to walk, his vision, he’s lost all sense of taste and smell and has lost feeling in parts of his body
Tom Savage was out walking his dog one evening in Stratford when he was suddenly set upon in a brutal attack that saw him stabbed almost 20 times. The 36-year-old was hospitalised for six weeks, and underwent major surgery to remove his sinus as the weapon he was attacked with went through both bits of his skull.
Tom’s injuries have affected his ability to walk, his vision, he’s lost all sense of taste and smell and has lost feeling in parts of his body. He has bravely recalled the night of August 19 for the first time publicly, which he hopes will raise awareness of what happened to him and will help find his attacker.
Local councillors and residents are also pushing for more police in the area off the back of the attack.
Tom had just finished walking through Mirabelle Gardens when he saw a man in the distance who was walking up from the bottom of the park. He was ready to make his way back home but before he knew it, the man was ‘right in front of [his] face’ and was walking quickly towards him, kicking the gravel-covered ground in the direction of Tom which caused dust to go everywhere.
The man asked Tom if he lived around the area and when he answered, the man chillingly said: “I don’t like you very much.” He then lifted his shirt up and Tom saw ‘what looked like the handle end of a screwdriver, like a blue plastic screwdriver or green’.
Tom said: “I can only imagine it was a sharpened blade essentially like a blunt instrument.
“I was quite lucky it wasn’t a knife really, I’m pretty sure that’s what it was but I never saw the full thing. I knew as soon as I saw him lift his shirt up and saw it, I knew exactly what was coming because he looked angry – he didn’t really blink at all and from what I could see in the 10 seconds we were talking if that, I knew I was in trouble.”
Tom later said it almost felt as if it wasn’t the first time the man, who he did not recognise, had done this as his actions seemed ‘rehearsed’.
‘I felt numb‘
Acting on instinct, Tom got his dog to run in the opposite direction as ‘I’d rather have me attacked than the dog attacked’ and made a run for it himself towards the nearest road.
“I didn’t get very far before this guy knocked me over. I felt a smack in the back of my head and from that point on I don’t remember feeling any pain from the whole thing – I felt numb,” Tom said.
The two had a bit of a tussle in the road and Tom eventually got himself free and attempted to throw the man off him before running as fast as he could again in the other direction. He said: “I just focused on that road and thought if I get there, the chance of someone seeing me is higher but if I don’t, I’m going to be in a lot of trouble, I’m not going to get very far.”
I managed to shout for help a couple of times, but then the next thing I know he threw me on the floor – I lost all feeling from my chest down and I think that’s probably when he stabbed me in the spine,” Tom said.
At this point, Tom went completely cold. He tried to get up but realised he couldn’t move his legs. He said: “That was the point where it was over for me. I thought I’ve shouted twice and if no one comes here it’s over, I’m not going to remember this because I’ll be gone. I don’t remember how long it lasted for, I was laying on my side and at that point I couldn’t really move.”
As he lay there, believing he was going to die, a group of people came running to help Tom, which ultimately managed to scare the man off. The last memory Tom has is of paramedics cutting his jeans off in an ambulance before later waking up on the trauma unit in hospital.
