Widdowson in his first major part with Bern-Ballett last Thursday night (photo©2011, Stadttheater/Philipp Zinniker)
Family and police press conference Tuesday evening 8 November
BERN, SWITZERLAND -A 23-year-old man was arrested Wednesday in Broadway, Roath, Cardiff and charged with assault and robbery following an incident in the early hours of Saturday 4 November that left a 19-year-old in critical condition.
Jack Widdowson, a member of Bern:Ballett which performs at the city’s Stadttheatre, is in critical condition, possibly with a broken neck, following the brutal attack in Cardiff city centre in Wales. The attack occurred about 00:45 Saturday and appears to have happened after a man befriended him in the docks area and suggested a shortcut. Widdowson’s iPhone and other possessions were stolen and have not been recovered, according to Cardiff police.
“Police believe Mr Widdowson was targeted during a night out in the city centre with his brother, a former semi-professional rugby player who is now studying at Cardiff University,” Walesonline reports. “It is believed his attacker befriended him as he walked in the vicinity of Bute Terrace around 00.45am, before leading him to a canal-side footpath where he was brutally mugged and assaulted.”
Police continue to ask the public for help in the investigation (details and contact).
The young dancer had recovered three years earlier from a severe case of meningitis, according to the news site, and had danced with a London company before joining Bern:Ballett. His family lives in Bath, England.
His father, Dr Julian Widdowson, is head of sports medicine at Premiership Rugby Club in Bath.
He told the Daily Mail that Jack was able to use dancing, which he had started in his early teens, to control one weakness left over from the bacterial meningitis attack, a tremor in his upper limbs.
He had recovered from the illness through what his father told the Daily Mail was a “punishing programme of rehab”, noting that Jack had always been active in sports, representing his school in hockey and in rugby, playing as a prop.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva police have confirmed to several Swiss media that an adolescent received knife wounds Monday night in the Geneva neighbourhood of Carouge, reportedly after being accosted by a group of youths as he went to get his moped, but police will provide no further information because those involved are minors. The youth is reported by 20 Minutes to be in critical condition.
Zug, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in Zug are confident that they will find the gang of young men who attacked a British family Friday evening, spokesperson Marcel Schlatter told GenevaLunch Monday 31 January.
Investigators are expecting to have CCTV footage Tuesday, and they believe the film will allow them to identify the seven to nine youths, about ages 20-22, who were involved. “They’re probably a local group” says Schlatter, noting that nothing in particular appears to have provoked the attack: they were most likely “just young guys out looking for a fight.”
The family doesn’t speak German and no words were exchanged.
Police interviewed people who were at the station at the time but they were unable to give police precise descriptions of the attackers.
The father of the family works in Switzerland part of the time, but the family lives in the UK. The three children, ages 10-13, were not attacked, but both parents were kicked and punched. They were taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries and shock, then released.
Schlatter says the father believes the group first noticed the family when they were all in a restaurant near the train station, where the youths appeared to be making fun of the family, but he was unable to understand what they said. The group then met them again outside the restaurant and a bit later, at the station, where the attack took place.
The Zug station, which was built in 2003, has 25,000 passengers a day.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A police officer is in stable condition at the Hug university hospitals in Geneva after being knifed by a drug suspect he was questioning. The attack took place in Lancy, at the Parc Berlasconi.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was badly scratched and hit in the face by a man wielding a small souvenir replica of Milan’s cathedral, Sunday 13 December in Milan, although it’s unclear if the man threw it or hit Berlusconi with it. The prime minister is receiving 24 hours of treatment and observation in a hospital but is expected to leave late Monday. The hospital has issued a statement saying he has a slight nose fracture and two broken teeth. The man who accosted him while he was signing autographs has a history of psychiatric problems.
New bear park in Bern, Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 25-year-old man who was injured when he climbed the wall of the new bear park in Bern, then slipped, is in stable condition after he was attacked by one of the bears. Finn, the nearly 4-year-old male who injured him, was wounded by gunfire from a policeman who was trying to save the young man, and the bear is in serious condition, according to Bernd Schildger, the head of Dählhölzli, the animal park of which the bear pit is a part. If Finn survives, which is not yet clear, he will not be put down, says Schildger.
Police have not been able to determine why the man, who is mentally handicapped, decided to climb the wall, where he crouched for a moment before falling four metres into the bears’ den.
Luterbach, Solothurn, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 20-year-old American was assailed Monday 9 November around noon in the train station at Luterbach by two youths. He was kicked and punched and suffered a concussion. The two were unknown to the young man and police are seeking them, reports AP/20 Minutes (Fre).
