What my attacker’s conviction taught me about taking on the far right | Owen Jones
He may go to jail, but what will be achieved? We need to look elsewhere for an answer to the growing fascist menace
After a night out celebrating my birthday, I’d left a pub with a group of five others. The CCTV shows us cheerily exchanging goodbyes while Healy creeps up on us, hands in pockets, before suddenly karate kicking me to the ground from behind and throwing wild punches in what the court ruled was a “frenzied attack”. A melee ensued as our assailant was joined by two friends, who later pleaded guilty to affray. My companions helped prevent a far worse incident, three of them taking blows to the head in the process.
Healy had already pleaded guilty to affray and actual bodily harm; his defence was that his rage-filled attack was provoked by a spilt pint earlier. In fact, either he or a friend had, just before the attack, masqueraded as an admirer of mine, double-checking they weren’t about to assault another stranger with a passing resemblance to Macaulay Culkin. Healy’s home was stashed full of far-right memorabilia: Combat 18 regalia (one of their stated aims is to “execute all queers”), White Power logos and Nazi death heads and an SS flag adorned with the stamp of Chelsea Headhunters, a notorious football hooligan group associated with the far right.