Sheffield man subjected strangers to 'mindless violence' on Chesterfield Road after 'losing his temper'

The first person targeted by Craig Daly on May 10 this year was a man with cerebral palsy, shortly after he exited a dentist’s surgery on Chesterfield Road, Woodseats, Sheffield Crown Court was told during a June 27 hearing.

Prosecuting barrister Nicola Quinney described how Daly, aged 37, punched the first complainant ‘to the left side of his head’ without warning.

"He [the complainant] turned around to see what had happened and the defendant moved towards him...he ran around the side of the vehicle, and ran back inside the dentist’s surgery,” Ms Quinney said.

She added that the first complainant declined to make a police statement, saying he was ‘fearful of what the consequences would be’.

Ms Quinney said Daly, of Sicey Avenue, Firth Park, then went to approach the second complainant, a worker at a nearby shop, as she was sat outside on her break, having a cigarette.

"He asked her for a cigarette and she said she would go inside to get him one once she’d finished her cigarette. He said he’d just take hers,” Ms Quinney said.

The court was told how Daly proceeded to call the second complainant a ‘dirty s***,’ before he subjected her to what Ms Quinney described as a ‘prolonged’ and ‘persistent’ struggle in which he pulled her arms above her head and twisted them, in a bid to take her cigarette.

Police, who had been called following the incident involving the first complainant, arrived on the scene a short time later and arrested Daly, who subsequently made ‘no comment’ in police interview.

In a statement read to the court, the second complainant said she had lost money, as a result of the incident, because of having to miss work.

COURT: Jury find three men guilty of murdering 20-year-old Ramey Salem who was shot dead at Sheffield flat

"I was doing my work and this person had no right to come over and assault me,” she said.

Ms Quinney told the court how the two assaults were committed less than three months after Daly was sentenced to 12 months’ custody, suspended for two years, in a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on February 22 this year.

During the hearing, Daly was sentenced for offences including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage, relating to an attack he carried out on his mother’s neighbour, after she complained about noise disruption he caused the previous evening.

Daly, who has an extensive record of 81 offences from 29 convictions, 15 of which were for violence, pleaded guilty to two offences of common assault and breaching a suspended sentence order at an earlier hearing.

Defending, Bianca Brasoveanu said the best point of mitigation that could be made for Daly was the fact he ‘pleaded guilty at the earliest available opportunity’.

Ms Brasoveanu said Daly’s offending occurred when he ‘lost his temper over a short period of time,’ and referred Judge Graham Robinson to his pre-sentence report, which, she suggested, outlined his ‘complex issues’.

Judge Robinson activated all 12 months of Daly’s suspended sentence, and sentenced him to additional two months for the assaults, bringing his total sentence to 14 months’ immediate custody.

He told Daly: “There were two victims and no obvious motive, this was mindless violence.”