Disabled Birmingham man tarred and feathered in attack
“I don’t want any sympathy. All I want is the chance to make it clear I had nothing to do with breaking into that house.
“I have been in trouble for stupid things when I was a kid but I don’t break into houses.”
Mr Topping, who is registered disabled after suffering a series of strokes, said he was snatched from Clapgate Lane at about 7pm last Friday as he walked to his mother’s home.
He said he was put in a van before being driven to a house where he was knocked unconscious.
Mr Topping said he was then driven to the Crown pub on Clapgate Lane and stripped before being tied to a tree, doused in tar and feathered.
He said he spent two nights in Selly Oak Hospital with a badly bruised face before being discharged.
Mr Topping’s father John said: “This is a case of mistaken identity and I don’t want all the people who saw what happened to think he was responsible for that burglary.”
• Paul Clews, 63, of Clapgate Lane, Bartley Green, has appeared before Birmingham Magistrates’ Court charged with kidnap and unlawful wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in connection with the alleged incident.
Clews was remanded in custody until a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on December 7.
