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| Ballet dancer Jack Widdowson's attacker's sentence increased | Ballet dancer Jack Widdowson's attacker's sentence increased |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A man who attacked a teenager ballet dancer, broke his neck and left him lying in the street has had his sentence increased from 13 to 18 years. | A man who attacked a teenager ballet dancer, broke his neck and left him lying in the street has had his sentence increased from 13 to 18 years. |
| Mohammed Ali Mohamoed, from Cardiff, was jailed in June for the attack on Jack Widdowson, 19, from Somerset. | |
| The Attorney General welcomed the appeal court's decision involving a "dangerous offender". | |
| Dominic Grieve said the "brutal" attack on a canal towpath could have easily ended the promising dancer's career. | |
| Mohamoed was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but cleared of attempted murder. | |
| Mr Widdowson, an apprentice dancer at the Bern Ballet Company in Switzerland, was attacked on a night out while visiting his brother, who was a student at Cardiff University. | |
| Rehabilitation | |
| His mobile was stolen and he was left for dead on the outskirts of the city centre near East Tyndall Street just after midnight. | |
| The dancer, who has performed just two days before the attack on 5 November 2011, suffered a broken neck and it was feared he would be paralysed | |
| But after eight months of rehabilitation including hydrotherapy and physiotherapy sessions he was able to dance again and even performed at Glastonbury this summer. | |
| Mr Widdowson later said ballet was his "passion", and the attack had made him more determined than ever to succeed. | |
| His family called his recovery a "miracle" and he has since been able to resume his ballet career. | |
| On Friday the Court of Appeal increased Mohamoed's original sentence to 18 years, comprising a custodial element of 13 years and an extended licence period of five years. | |
| Mohamoed, from Splott in the city, is to be deported after serving his sentence. | |
| The attorney general said: "This terrible attack, on a promising young ballet dancer, could easily ended his career. Mohammed Ali Mohamoed used brutal violence on his victim and left him severely injured and in a paralysed condition on a tow path in Cardiff. | |
| "I am pleased that the Court of Appeal found Mohammed Mohamoed a dangerous offender and increased his term to an extended sentence of 18 years." |