Thug who stabbed a man five times awarded more compensation than his victim was offered

For Brian Wallace, October 21, 2007 is a night he will remember for the rest of his life. It was supposed to be a day of celebration. The off-duty bouncer was at his brother’s 21st birthday at the Chimney Corner Hotel in Belfast when he encountered the violent thug who almost ended his life.

The 30-year-old Glengormley man was stabbed five times during a fight outside the hotel’s nightclub and spent two weeks in hospital, having suffered lacerations to his lung and kidney as well as puncture wounds to his chest, body and upper groin. And although the physical wounds may have healed, Mr Wallace still bears the mental scars from that vicious attack.

When he discovered this week that his attacker, Simon Granhof, received £12,500 in compensation for being wrongly held for two weeks in a detention centre, the local man said he felt sick. So far Mr Wallace has not received any compensation for the injuries he suffered. He is currently embroiled in a legal wrangle after an original offer of £7,500 compensation was reduced because he has a driving conviction.

He said: “It is absolutely disgusting, I am sickened. He stabbed me five times, I was in hospital for two weeks and when I came out I was confined to a bedroom for five months. He got four years but obviously only served two. To think that he was detained, for whatever reason, two weeks’ extra and gets £12,500, I am lost for words.

“He got two weeks’ detention over what he was meant to. I spent months in a room probably the same size as his cell and feeling the way I felt with my injuries. Where’s the justice? Is it for the criminals? It’s not about the victims,” Mr Wallace said.

Former Police Federation Chairman Jimmy Spratt described the sum paid to Granhof as an “insult”. “The circumstances seem crazy that somebody who has committed an appalling crime is then compensated,” he said.