Man jailed after slashing victim’s face in night club assault earlier this year

On Tuesday 12 December, Riley Jackson (19/11/2004) of Aldbourne Close was found guilty of Grievous Bodily Harm with Intent and Possession of a Knife in a public place and sentenced to 5 years in prison after a violent assault in Manchester City Centre in April of this year (2023). 

Riley Jackson 

On the evening of Saturday 1 April 2023 the victim, a 19 year old man, was out with his friends at a nightclub in Manchester City Centre and on arrival at the club, the victim and his friends decided to purchase a booth. They initially sat at their VIP table drinking and chatting. The victim then made his way to the dance floor where he stayed for around fifteen to twenty minutes dancing with his friends.

Meanwhile two of the victim’s friends, noticed a group of men sat at their booth. They went over and asked the males to move up before sitting down and have tried to speak to the men to ask where they were from. Jackson then suddenly stood up and shouted aggressively "don't chat to him" and "i'll slash yous all.”

On seeing a commotion taking place, the victim approached the booth and put his drink down on the table. Jackson suddenly turned his attention to the victim shouting to him "what you gonna do” before taking a knife from his pocket. Then without warning or provocation Jackson swung the knife in an upwards motion across the victim's face causing a severe slash wound to the victim’s cheek. This resulted in a large laceration which later required 30 stitches in hospital and has left the victim with permanent scarring.

Security staff tried to intervene but Jackson and the men he was with he was with fled from the club.

A subsequent investigation was launched by GMP’s Manchester City Centre CID and following extensive CCTV enquiries they quickly identified Jackson who was arrested in May 2023 and subsequently charged the same month.

Detective Constable Annabel Lewis of GMP’s City Centre CID, said: “No matter the length of sentence passed today, nothing will change the fact that the victim of this violent and unprovoked attack will be subjected to physical and mental scars for the rest of his life and the impact of that cannot be measured.

"I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the victim’s bravery throughout the investigation and hope with the support of his loved ones he can now move forward in his life knowing that Jackson will remain behind bars for a significant length of time.

"Greater Manchester Police take incidents such as this extremely seriously and today’s Court result highlights the importance of swift detective work to bring dangerous offenders to justice”.