Every horrible incident of violence leaves behind a victim struggling to deal with what has occurred. Royal Gazette chief reporter Matthew Taylor spoke to one victim of a random attack about the confusing emotional roller-coaster of coping after a violent crime.Out on the town on a jolly work social Steve Nowell wasn’t expecting trouble.

But what should have been a pleasant evening with fellow accountants was shattered when he was jumped, without provocation, by three strangers who beat him until he was drenched with his own blood.

Recalling the night in the spring of 2005, the 35-year-old father-of-one said he stood little chance as he emerged from the toilets of Champions into a waiting ambush. “When I opened the cubicle door there were about three guys who started laying into me.”

The first blow knocked him back on the toilet but when he got back up the onslaught continued.

Unable to hit back he concentrated on fending off punches and staying on his feet.

“There were too many of them to start fighting back. It would have been worse if I had gone down — they would have started putting the boot in.”

The thugs never said a word to him before or during the attack.

“I remember asking them ‘why are you punching me?’. But they said nothing.

“Whether we just got their backs up by being in Champions as a big group I don’t know.

“They saw me go off on my own. I don’t recall any argument which could have sparked it.”

A blow which cut his nose stopped the attack believes Mr. Nowell. “There was blood going absolutely everywhere. It was all over the ceiling and walls. That did as much to stop them as anything. They would have got covered as well.”

Mr. Nowell didn’t hang around to allow them to have second thoughts.

“I got out of there as quickly as I could because blood was going everywhere. No one even knew it had happened until Monday.”

Because of the mess he was in he had to walk home. “No taxi would have picked me up. I was covered in blood from head to toe. Even my white trainers were now red. I was completely covered in blood when I got home.”

It was an upsetting sight for his pregnant wife.

“When she switched the light and saw me she was scared and shocked.

“My nose was so swollen it looked like it had shifted to the right. She helped clean me up and get me to hospital.”

He suffered a black eye but the physical problems didn’t end there.

A while later he discovered he had suffered a tooth fracture under the gum.

It needed to be taken out and an implant put in. The five trips to the dentist over a nine-month period cost him $2,000 in dental fees.

And there was the emotional fall-out. For a year afterwards the attack preyed on his mind.

“I wished I had gone home at 2 o’clock rather than gone to Champions. And I still think about it now when I am out. I am a bit more wary.

“Before it happened I hadn’t really considered it that big a risk in Bermuda — you go out in Bristol in England you are on your guard because you know it can happen.”

He didn’t report the assault to the Police for fear he wouldn’t have been able to give a very good description. “I didn’t think it would ever get anywhere so it was easier not to go through the hassle.”

He believes the attackers were local guys in their early twenties and race might have been the motive of the attack but has no way of knowing for sure. “Three people came in and picked on an easy target — it was cowardly and without provocation.”

Angry about the attack for the weeks after, he said: “It makes you wary when you see young guys in groups but on a one-to-one basis it hasn’t changed my behaviour.

“It’s annoying so many people have to go through this. On a personal level I have moved on — it doesn’t affect my life now.”

But his wife now calls him to check on nights out. “She’s worried it will happen again.”