A teenage thug who left his ex-teacher for dead after beating him to a pulp in a shocking unprovoked attack has failed in a desperate final attempt to evade justice.
When he was just 17 years old, Lukas Mikoliunas hit Christian Dawson in the face after ambushing him shortly after 2am outside the Jet Garage in Princes Avenue, Hull, on March 18, 2017.
The 40-year-old teacher was left blood-soaked on the pavement after being punched several times in the head.
He was concussed, blinded for 24 hours and suffered horrific facial injuries which a surgeon likened to ‘crushed cornflakes.’
Christian Dawson, pictured in hospital, was blinded for 24 hours following the late night attack
Mikoliunas denied any involvement in the attack but was convicted of grievous bodily harm (GBH) in August 2017 following a one-day trial at Hull Youth Court.
However, almost a year after the attack, Mikoliunas returned to Hull Crown Court to appeal against his conviction.
The teenager claimed a case of mistaken identity, with his defence lawyer, Stephen Robinson, questioning the amount of alcohol the teacher had drunk on the night in question.
Mr Dawson, who is a father of one, recognised Mikoliunas from his time as a teacher at Sirius Academy West, had five pints and one Jack Daniels and coke during a night out with friends.
He said he was ‘tipsy’ and ‘merry’ but Mr Robinson suggested he was more intoxicated than he was letting on.
‘I have got to suggest you were more affected by the alcohol thank you say you were. You were a bit more drunk weren’t you?’ said Mr Robinson.
The victim replied: ‘I have never been so drunk that I can’t recall the events of the evening and certainly in this instance, where nothing like this has ever happened to me before, I have got no doubt that the memory of who it was that assaulted me is not impaired by the alcohol I drank.’
Lukas Mikoliunas, pictured at Hull Magistrates Court last year, beat his former teacher Christian Dawson during the early hours of March 18 2017
Mr Dawson was answered questions about the night by Mr Robinson, prosecutor Julia Baggs and Recorder Tim Roberts QC.
Mr Robinson took aim at the accuracy of Mr Dawson’s first statement given to the police when he was still in hospital just a day after the attack.
He described it as ‘pretty inaccurate’ and Mr Dawson admitted that he did make mistakes because he was under the effect of painkillers and was still confused from the concussion he had suffered at the hands of his attacker.
In a final attempt to distance Mikoliunas from the attack, Mr Robinson claimed Mr Dawson had tried to pin the blame on the teenager after being shown a picture of Mikoliunas by a former colleague.
Prosecutors claimed Mr Dawson, pictured, resembled a ‘crushed cornflake’ after the attack
Christian Dawson, pictured here with his daughter called the police after recognised a photograph of Mikoliunas who he had seen earlier on the night of the unprovoked attack
When he was shown the photo and realised Mikoliunas was the attacker and the person he had seen in Khan’s takeaway hours prior to the attack, Mr Dawson had immediately called police.
Mr Robinson said: ‘When you say the person who hit you was the same male in the takeaway you are mistaken about that aren’t you?
‘By this stage you were desperate to find the person who had done this weren’t you?’
Mr Dawson retorted: ‘I know it was the same person in the takeaway.
‘The one thing that has remained accurate was that the person who hit me was the person in the takeaway and I have known that all along.’
Recorder Tim Roberts said Mr Dawson’s use of Facebook to identify his assailant was ‘not conventional’ it was still ‘accurate and reliable’ to the standard to achieve a conviction
Recorder Roberts QC assessed the evidence given by all parties, including Mr Dawson, a passer-by who came to the teacher’s aid, and Mikoliunas himself.
He admitted that while Mr Dawson’s process of identifying his victim through Facebook was not ‘conventional,’ it was ‘accurate and reliable’ to the standards needed to attain a criminal conviction.
This meant Mikoliunas’ appeal against his conviction was not upheld.
Throughout his ordeal, Mr Dawson, who now teaches at Sirius Academy North in Orchard Park, has pleaded with his victim to show remorse.
Four months after the attack, he admitted he was still haunted by the terrifying encounter which left his young daughter too scared to look at him because of the extent of his injuries.
Mikoliunas is now set to be sentenced for the attack on his former teacher and for a separate burglary offence in three weeks’ time.
He was denied bail by Recorder Roberts QC and will be remanded in custody until he is sentenced.