An Edinburgh man has told of the horrific attack he endured on Friday night while walking home from the pub that has left his wife afraid to leave the house.
Quintin Rosettenstein, 48, was walking home just after midnight on Friday when he was struck in the head from behind and then battered in a dark unlit lane just moments from his house.
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The local school care taker, originally from South Africa, has lived in Clermiston for six years with his wife Janine. The couple have never had any trouble before but fears the area has taken a turn for the worse after several violent incidents took place near their home.
The thug hit the 48-year-old from behind and pushed him towards a narrow unlit alleyway before striking him several more times and booting him in the chest leaving Quentin covered with blood and disorientated while screaming out for help.
Luckily a nearby neighbour heard the cries of pain and phoned the police who arrived quickly after Quentin reached his home where they advised he needed immediate medical attention and drove him to the Royal Infirmary.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, the dad told of the unnerving events. He said: "I didn't see anything I came down a little alleyway straight from the pub around 12.30am, there is a little grass area when I was passing that I was knocked to the back of the head. I tried to run down the alley shouting 'leave me alone, leave me alone' and shouting 'help help' but after that I don't remember anything.
"I was battered all the way down the alley and all I can remember was being distorted in the alley but still being hit. Apparently one of the neighbours heard me screaming and have CCTV footage so they called the police.
"When they called the police that must have scared them off, so I was able to drag myself up the rest of the alleyway and into my house. The police were just behind me so when I got in they had arrived."
Wife Janine came home shortly after and was in shock when she saw her partner. She said: "I was at my cousins and got in just afterwords and all I saw was the state of his face, Quentin absolutely covered with blood and loads of police in the living room.
"I was stunned and just couldn’t believe the amount of blood I kept telling him to look in the mirror but the police said that wasn’t a good idea."
He added: "The police were literally two minutes behind me but I don't remember much. I was covered in blood and they told me I needed to go to hospital so they put me in the back of the police car and took me to the Royal Infirmary."
Quentin doesn’t remember much from the events but spent the night in hospital with serious injuries. Images too graphic to publish show the dad on the night of the incident with his head and face covered in blood.
He said: "They checked me in, I went out for a cigarette at A&E and saw my reflection in the window and just collapsed. After that I woke up around 4am in the hospital and was really confused.
"They wanted to stitch my eyebrow because it was gashed open but I said I'm already in agony can you not just use glue so they did.
"They couldn’t x-ray my face because it was so swollen so I will have to go back and I have a concussion from the head injury and am still really confused."
"I can't feel anything on the left side of my face I don't think anything was broken but I can't feel anything at all.
"I have a huge scar on my neck from when I broke it in a previous injury which the attacker would have had no idea about so it could have been fatal.
"There were hits to the chest as its really sore across there but most of the impact was on the side of my face and there are cuts across the back of my head" he said.
The whole incident has left Quentin and his family shaken and his wife Janine too terrified to leave the house. The couple's two daughters aged 18 and 25 now want to move from the area as they are also afraid.
He explained: "I have lived in Clermiston for around six years and never had trouble like this before. I am a quiet, chilled out guy. People have been saying they can't believe it happened to me.
"I don't know if I was in the wrong time, wrong place or I got followed I don't know. My wife Janine doesn’t want to go out the door, she is phoning me every three minutes asking 'Are you okay, are you alright?'
"My stepdaughters want to move house now, they hate it round here now and want to get away."
Quentin has tried to return to normality but is still concussed and shaken by the terrifying incident. He said: "When I left the house for the first time today, I got a fright in the morning when I was walking down the street.
"I heard a bush rustling and I completely flinched. I went back to work today, I am a janitor at a local school but I work for an agency so I don’t get sick pay and was off Saturday and Sunday following the attack so already I have lost about £300 pay.
"Janine is more paranoid. I went back to the pub this afternoon to check in with some of our friends and I was shaking and they noticed that but it's like falling off a bike you have to get back on it.
"I just hope they catch whoever it was. I hope the police catch the guy before the locals do. I don't want revenge I just want them off the streets."
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The dad has now praised the work of the police and the Criminal Investigation Department who rushed to the scene, took statements and even found Quentin's glasses lens while combing the scene which luckily was in tact saving him £500 for a new pair.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Around 1.10am on Saturday, 27 August, police were called to a report of a man assaulted in Ransome Gardens, Edinburgh. He was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and police enquiries are ongoing into this incident."
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