Police are appealing for witnesses after man dies in city centre

A man found with serious head injuries in the city centre has died in hospital after undergoing ten brain operations.

Harrison Watkinson, 28, was found at the bottom of a flight of concrete steps leading off Fitzalan Square and down towards Pond Street, at around 1.20pm on June 6th.

He was immediately rushed to The Royal Hallamshire Hospital where he remained critically ill for a number of months. His family made the decision to allow medics to turn off his breathing machine, so sadly passed away on Saturday, 10 September.

A post-mortem examination this week concluded the cause of death was a head injury.

Harrison Watkinson

The victim’s mother, Debra Watkinson, said: “He was found with serious head injuries and was rushed to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and had major brain surgery.

“Three days on and he had to have another operation due to blood around his brain – they unfortunately had to remove the front part of his skull as the swelling was so bad and was twice the size it should have been. He then went on to have eight more operations as he had fluid on his brain that needed to be released by a drain.

“Sadly and unfortunately, the doctors said he no longer had any quality of life and decided to turn off the machines that were keeping him alive.”

Officers are continuing to investigate the incident and appealing for witnesses to come forward. An 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault at the time of the attack, but now police are treating his death as unexplained.

DC Michelle Walton said: “We have made various enquiries, followed up several leads and have spoken to a number of witnesses in an attempt to ascertain the exact circumstances of the incident.

“I would still urge anyone who remembers being in the area at the time, to please come forward, even if you don’t believe you have any information, or you think the details you have may not be useful, it could prove to be vital to our investigation.”

Please call 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111, quoting incident number 128 of June 7, 2016.