Friend armed with stiletto stopped station yobs killing me

A teacher beaten unconscious by yobs in an unprovoked attack said today he could have been killed if his friend had not intervened.

Andy Wicks was being kicked and punched outside Dartford railway station by three men when colleague Tina Parisi charged at them with her stiletto shoe.

The men walked off but had already left the father of two with a badly bleeding eye from their sustained attack.

Mr Wicks, 45, spoke today for the first time about the assault in the early hours of July 24 as police released CCTV images of the assailants in a new attempt to identify them.

The attack took place as he and Ms Parisi were walking home after a work night out. The three men in their twenties, accompanied by a young woman, threw a bottle at them as they walked towards the station and then surrounded them.

One of the men hit the newly-qualified teacher on the back of the head, knocking him to the floor, before they started kicking him in the face and head for up to two minutes.

Mr Wicks, who lives in Plumstead with daughter Ruby, three, eight-month-old son Seth and wife Stephanie, said: "I was resigned to it. I thought if they are going to have a go there is nothing more I can do about it. I didn't get a chance to defend myself.

"It could have been a lot worse. The next time they might pick on someone with a pre-existing condition who ends up killed. If there hadn't been two of us they might have carried on until I was beaten to a pulp and I might not have been here now." Before the attack, the pair had been celebrating the end of summer term at Jubilee Primary School in Thamesmead. The cuts Mr Wicks suffered were so close to his eye that medics could not put in stitches. In the weeks after the attack he collapsed frequently with concussion.

Despite several appeals, British Transport Police have not been able to trace the three men, or the woman. Pc Luke Hamilton-Wargent said: "Anyone who recognises the men in the CCTV images is urged to come forward." Call 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference B4/LSA of 01/09/2010 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.