Appeal on murder attempt fails

A drunken thug who beat a man into a coma following an argument over a mobile phone failed to convince top judges he was wrongly convicted yesterday.

Stephen David Woolfall (23), of The Downs, Middleton, was jailed indefinitely for public protection at Bolton Crown Court in March last year after he was convicted of attempting to murder David Sneddon (49), who was left brain-damaged by the attack.

The sentence, means he will not be freed until the Parole Board is convinced he is no longer a danger to the public. He must serve at least 12 years behind bars.

His victim was so badly injured he was unable to give evidence at Woolfall’s trial. Mr Sneddon suffered multiple fractures to his skull, broken ribs, punctured lungs and a brain haemorrhage.

Woolfall’s lawyers urged Lord Justice Moses, Mr Justice Jack and Mr Justice Roderick Evans to reconsider his conviction, arguing that Woolfall had been misled during cross-examination and that some of his evidence should never have been put before the jury.

But Mr Justice Evans, sitting at London’s Appeal Court, rejected those arguments and said: “In our view, the whole of the cross-examination was entirely proper and Woolfall cannot have been misled or put in a false position. There is nothing in this application for leave to appeal.”