Someone Worse Off Than You

Tweet

On my own difficult (see my 9th-10th February 2019 diary entry) journey to Manchester I saw a man at Preston station who had savage bruises on his face. He was panicking over the train delay and asked me what was going on. At first I thought he was out to beg me for money but I gradually got his story. A ‘friend’ he said he knew for about 4 months was giving him a lift and suddenly just dumped him out of the car somewhere near 'Stoke-On-Trent' stealing his phone and beating him to a pulp. With no idea where to go he had walked for about five hours though the gales ending up in Preston, and hoping for the train to Manchester. He did have enough money on him for that. He looked close to collapse. I advised him to talk to the railway police and he did. They led him off and hopefully sorted him out as I never saw him when the late train finally did arrive. The element of his story that doesn't ad up is his claim to have walked from Stoke On Trent in five hours. Not only would it take longer than that on foot, he would have passed close to Manchester as well as Liverpool and Chester. generally I believe his friend assaulted him. He may well have been driven past Stoke, maybe the last town he recognized or saw signs for, before being dumped somewhere else. I do hope he was OK. Arthur Chappell