Suspects caught on camera phone

12:36pm Thursday 30th June 2005

A mobile phone image shows three men police want to trace after two friends were stabbed, kicked and beaten with baseball bats outside a pub.

Mario Smith, 29, and David Sayer, 38, were attacked after they helped the landlord of a north London pub to eject three men. Both men nearly died from their injuries.

"This was a brutal attack where both men are lucky to be alive.”

DS Alan Dawson

Earlier that Friday night another friend took a picture of Mr Sayer with the suspects playing pool in the background.

Police said the landlord of the New Moon pub in Lordship Lane, Tottenham, "became unhappy" with the three men's behaviour and asked them to leave.

When the two friends stepped in to help, a fight broke out. Once outside, more men joined in the scuffle.

Mr Sayer was stabbed five times in the back, side and stomach, but managed to stumble back inside just after midnight on 12 March.

When Mr Smith collapsed from three stab wounds to his back, he was hit with a baseball bat and kicked in the head and face.

Both of them needed emergency life saving treatment. Part of Mr Sayer's bowel and spleen had to be removed.

"This was a brutal attack where both men are lucky to be alive," said Detective Sergeant Alan Dawson from Haringey CID.

CCTV footage from the pub was too poor to identify the suspects, he added. Asking local people who they were also hit a dead end.

"On the evening a friend of the victim took a camera photograph of Mr Sayer whilst he was sitting in the pub.

"She has also managed to capture three men in the background of this picture who we are eager to question about the attack.

"We are hopeful that someone must know their identities."

Police believe the attack was unprovoked and have offered a £20,000 reward for information leading to prosecution.

All three suspects looked like Eastern Europeans, a Met spokesman said.

Mr Smith and Mr Sayer have been released from North Middlesex hospital and are "slowly recovering".

• Anyone with information can call Haringey CID on 020 8345 0806, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.