Attack couple talk of future after verdict
The survivor of a frenzied attack at the hands of a jealous love rival today told of his plans for the future and new engagement – as the man who left him for dead in the snow faces years behind bars.
Richard Crane has made a remarkable recovery since Kevin Pallatina bludgeoned him with a sword, small axe or machete outside the Brownhills pub where both were regulars. Today, he and Pallatina's ex-girlfriend Lorraine Maskell revealed they plan to marry.
The couple also spoke of their relief after 45-year-old Pallatina was convicted of attempted murder following a week-long trial at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
Miss Maskell, 42, said of the forthcoming sentencing hearing: "To us, that will be case closed. We can move on after that."
Mr Crane, 46, was left for dead near the Anchor pub in Chester Road, in the early hours of February 19, 2010.
Miss Maskell, who had split from Pallatina a fortnight before the attack, said he had mistakenly suspected she was dating Mr Crane.
"The night it happened, Richard had walked me home as a friend and I rang him as he was going to his. I heard the first part of the attack – it was awful. I didn't know what was going on but I could hear Kevin was hitting him."
He was hospitalised for five weeks and off work for six months.
Ironically love did blossom between Mr Crane and mother-of-one Miss Maskell in April 2010. Then, on New Year's Day this year, he popped the question. "We had come home from a New Year's Eve party and he just asked me," Miss Maskell, head housekeeper at a Walsall care home, said.
Mr Crane, who shares a flat in Brownhills with his fiancee, still sports the physical scars of his ordeal.
But if mental scars remain, he is not showing it. "You have to get on with it, because otherwise what do you do?" he said.
