With the whites of his eyes turned bloody red and his face badly swollen over a network of broken bones, Dean Allison is almost unrecognisable as the fit young father-of-one who had everything going for him.
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Too injured to return to his job at Mount Kembla’s Dendrobium Mine, he is waiting to have stabilising metal plates inserted into his broken face.
“I have a constant headache,” he said. “It feels like there’s heaps of pressure behind my eyes from all the swelling. I’m not allowed to pick up [five-month-old son] Ashton. I’ll know on Thursday when I’ll get the surgery done, but it will be months.”
It’s a life interrupted since Saturday, when Mr Allison and his cousin Danny, celebrating Mr Allison’s 28th birthday, were allegedly set upon by a group of up 10 teenagers as they walked into Wollongong about 10.30pm after attending the MTV Beats and Eats festival in Stuart Park. The men turned a corner onto Corrimal Street and allegedly saw about 10 teenagers upending road signs and interfering with letterboxes. “Danny said, ‘c’mon boys … you can’t be doing that’. We had to walk past them, and just started getting punched to the side of the head,” Mr Allison said.
“I was down on all fours and they were kicking me and punching me in the back of the head. That’s all I can really remember.”
Mr Allison’s injuries include two fractured eye sockets. Beside him, Danny lay on the roadside for four minutes, unconscious.
Patrolling police interrupted the alleged assault and chased the group, a move Mr Allison’s father Rod credits with saving his son’s life.
His fiance Maddy Green discovered him moments later. “It was horrific,” she said. “I couldn't even make out what he looked like, he had blood running all the way down his face, out of his ears. Blood coming from his eye sockets.”
Four teenagers have since been charged in relation to the alleged assault, and released on bail. The police investigation into the matter continues.
Anyone with information that could assist is urged to contact Wollongong Police (4226 7899) or Crime Stoppers (1800 333 000).