A MAN says he believes he is lucky to be alive after he was set upon by two youths in a late-night attack in Colchester.

The Gazette told yesterday how Thomas Simpson and David Knight were ordered to pay £1,000 compensation after they admitted a charge of affray in relation to the assault on Clacton man Simon Robdrup in Colchester town centre.

The Chelmsford Crown Court judge who sentenced them, said anyone seeing the CCTV footage of the attack would have been “sickened”.

The court heard the pair were spotted in a nearby car park after the incident, acting out what they had done in a “self-congratulatory fashion”.

Today, their victim, Mr Robdrup, 20, who escaped without serious injuries, said he felt the pair – who had both been drinking – were fortunate he had not been badly hurt.

“At the end of the day, they got what they deserved. They were quite lucky, I could have been a lot worse from the incident – I could have been killed,” he said.

The former Clacton County High School pupil told how on the night of the attack he had been having a drink with friends at the Castle pub in Colchester High Street.

He had left with a pal to get a taxi home when he was confronted by Simpson, 19, of Fingringhoe Road, Langenhoe, and Knight, 20, of Abberton Road, Fingringhoe.

“I can’t remember any of the fight from there on until I got myself up off the floor,” he said.

He and his friend got a taxi home and it was only the following day when work colleagues became concerned Mr Robdrup was concussed, that he reported the incident to police.

CCTV images showed the full extent of the assault.

Simpson and Knight were told to pay £500 each in compensation to Mr Robdrup, of London Road, Clacton.

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