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Jail for knifeman who hurled racist abuse at bus passenger
Stabbing sparks plea from driver for regular police patrols on N29 route
JURORS have been shown CCTV clips of a terrifying row on a bus that left a man fighting for his life .
John Valaoritis, then 18, was returning home in July last year on the N29 night bus with friends when they were challenged to a fight by Wesley Henry.
Minutes after Henry hurled racist abuse at the group – made up of Greeks, Turks and Spaniards – Mr Valaoritis was slumped by a lamppost on a Camden Town pavement, having been stabbed through the liver.
At Wood Green Crown Court last week, Henry pleaded guilty to the knifing. Co-accused Dean Fergus, who denied a charge of grievous bodily harm, was freed.
Henry, 29, from Stoke Newington, was jailed for five-and-a-half years on Monday.
“You haven’t a good record,” Judge Malcolm Knott told him, after it was revealed Henry had a series of convictions.
“You were quarrelsome and aggressive. The tragic outcome was you plunging a knife into the abdomen of your victim. You’re very lucky he wasn’t killed.”
During the trial, Mr Valaoritis revealed he had been so traumatised by the stabbing he had moved to Greece.
He said: “It felt like a little punch. I got back on the bus. I [say to my friends] ‘Thank God nothing happened to us’, then I look down and it’s wet. I lifted up my shirt and it was pouring with blood.”
The stabbing conviction is likely to add to the pressure on bus chiefs to tackle violence on the 29 route’s bendy buses.
Last month, the New Journal revealed how the N29 and its daytime equivalent the 29 are the most dangerous buses in Camden. Figures showed the number of times drivers had pushed their in-cab panic button – known as a code red – had more than doubled in a year.
The bus’s route from West End’s clubland through Camden Town’s numerous bars and clubs has been blamed for the rowdiness on board. It was recently dubbed the Crazy Train by passengers fed up with anti-social behaviour.
Bus driver Billy Foster, who gave evidence in court about code reds, afterwards called for better safety on the route.
He said: “They need to put security people or police on the bus. Not on every one, maybe every third bus.”
Mr Foster agreed that the N29 was a rowdy bus. “The places it passes through increase the level of crime, and people hop on and off without paying,” he added. “Everyone seems to want to get on the bendy – they think it’s a party bus. But a party’s meant to be a nice place.” |
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