North Northants Council leader Jason Smithers used Karate skills to tackle naked bloodied man who had gone on Rushden rampage

North Northants Council leader Jason Smithers has described the moment he used his martial arts skills to rescue a mum and her baby as a bloodied naked man went on a rampage in Rushden.

Cllr Smithers had been driving on Saturday, December 3, 2022, when he saw a naked man – later identified as Lee Paul Osborne – attacking a woman with a child in a buggy.

Osborne, of Upper Kings Avenue, Higham Ferrers, then 24, had begun his day of terror shortly after 11am when a mum and her son heard a commotion.

During a sentencing hearing His Honour Judge Ebraham Mooncey and Northampton Crown Court heard Osborne, ‘under the influence of alcohol or drugs’ was ‘stumbling about’ and then took off all his clothes – he then ran off.

He began attacking people and punched a glass door, causing £300 worth of damage.

Still naked but now smeared in blood – at one point demanding keys from a female motorist by standing in front of her car and placing his hands on the bonnet – he continued to attack people in the street when Cllr Smithers drove past the scene.

Cllr Smithers said: “He was punching this lady around the head, she was with a child in a pushchair. I just felt there’s no excuse. My main concern was for the woman. I’ve got a daughter and a grandchild and would want someone to help. No-one tried to intervene and they had their camera phones out as they do. I felt for this poor lady.”

Cllr Smithers stopped his car and, using his knowledge of martial arts, confronted the ‘agitated and aggressive’ assailant.

He said: "He was as wild as a beast. He was trying everything to to get me. I’ve got 2nd Dan in Shotokan Karate. He swung for me a couple of times and he got a bit close. I put him down on the floor and held him there. He was telling me he wanted to kill me. My main concern was for the lady and her child. He didn’t know her.

"I’m a bit of a lump and he wasn’t going anywhere especially when I had my knee in his back.”

Cllr Smithers sat on Osborne for about 15 minutes until police arrived. A resident came out from a nearby house and used a curtain to keep Osborne warm and ‘cover his modesty’.

But Osborne’s day of running amok was not over.

After being taken to Northants Police’s Kettering Weekley Woods Custody Centre where when he was questioned only replied ‘no comment’, he then ripped the cable from the recording equipment, breaking it.

And when it was decided Osborne should be assessed at Kettering General Hospital A&E he resumed his attacks despite being handcuffed to two officers.

First he dug his nail into an officer’s hand drawing blood then Osborne then bit another officer and kicked a third in the back.

As he lay restrained on the floor, Osborne again bit an officer on the hand, this time puncturing the skin and causing swelling.

Patients waiting in the busy A&E waiting room heard Osborne shout obscenities and a racial slurs at medical staff, calling one a ‘f****** scumbag’.

Prosecutor Esther Harrison said : “He’s been in trouble since he was a juvenile. People were shocked and shaken and were not expecting to experience this.”

Listing some of his 99 previous offences to the court, she said his most recent court appearance was on September 30, 2022 when he was given a 42-week sentence suspended for two years.

Osborne, in breach of a suspended sentence, appeared from prison on a video link. He held his head in his hands and looked distressed, covering his mouth.

Liam Muir, mitigating, said: “Mr Osborne is disgusted by his behaviour. He is disgusted by his actions, by what he did on this occasion.

"He has showed remorse, he is genuinely motivated to change.”

Mr Muir added Osborne had recently become a father for the first time and wanted to change his behaviour.

Sentencing, Judge Mooncey said: “I am going to pass a sentence that reflects your general criminality. In your case it is extreme behaviour, totally unacceptable behaviour. This hopefully brings this to an end. It will give you time to reflect and you will turn over a new leaf.”

Osborne was jailed for a total 30 months.