A MAN who suffered a life-changing injury when he was stabbed by a shoplifter at a Poole supermarket said it was his “natural reaction” to step in after he heard someone shout “help, help, stop him”.
The Good Samaritan attempted to detain Connor James Eric Beckett at Sainsbury’s in Pitwines Close in February last year.
A tussle between the two followed before Beckett stabbed the victim in the stomach.
The man was airlifted to hospital and required two operations, which included having his spleen removed. Surgeons used 32 stitches after the procedure.
Speaking to the Daily Echo, the victim, a 53-year-old self-employed man, told the Daily Echo he had only gone to Sainsbury’s on the afternoon of February 10, 2020, to buy some food for dinner.
He said: “I just that minute stepped in the door. I heard a lot of commotion, a member of staff came running out and someone shouted ‘help, help, stop him’.
“The man was virtually right behind me, so I didn’t have to chase him, he was just there.
“I grabbed hold of him because your automatic reaction is you hear somebody shouting for help and you do something. You don’t hear someone shout ‘help, help, stop him’ and then watch it happen and think about it.
“We tussled on the floor. I couldn’t really remember being on the floor because it happened so quickly.
"The next thing I remember is having him up against the wall and that is when he stabbed me. I collapsed on the floor after being stabbed. I wasn’t aware he had a knife at the time.”
The man said he can remember lying on the floor of the supermarket with a “terrible pain” and bleeding heavily.
“I was concious up until the ambulance crew got there,” he said.
“I briefly remember being in the helicopter going to Southampton but by then I had drugs put into me. I was so cold but that was because I was in shock.
“Then I woke up after having two lots of surgery. The first operation to remove my spleen was done but they couldn’t stop the bleeding, so I had to go in again for a second surgery.”
He spent four days in intensive care and a further four days on a high-dependency unit before being transferred to a normal ward at the hospital.
Since the attack, he said the events do “play on my mind” and he is “nervous and cautious of other people around me”.
He was unable to work for at least two months and now must take daily anti-biotics for the rest of his life.
“I wouldn’t class myself as a hero," he added. "I just happened to be there at the right time or the wrong time, depending on how you look at it.
“It was just a natural reaction to respond when someone shouts ‘help’.”
A spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s said the company had been in touch with the customer to wish him a continued recovery.
Beckett, 23 and of Bowden Road, Poole, was jailed for 12 years at Bournemouth Crown Court on January 29 after being found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He admitted possessing a bladed article in a public place and two charges of theft.
His accomplice Jack Thomas Torpey, 22 and of no fixed abode, was sentenced to a total of eight months in prison on November 4, 2020, after admitting offences of affray and theft.
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