# Rather die like a man



## bps3040 (Jan 6, 2008)

Wow! Love this guy!

Hero: Brave Bernard Dwyer was left with serious injuries after he defended his family

A millionaire yesterday told how he fought off three armed burglars who were holding a knife to his daughter's throat, saying he "would rather die like a man than a dog". 

Bernard Dwyer, 51, was convinced he and his family were about to be killed so he chose to take on the men - hours after they had allegedly killed a restaurant owner, a court heard. 

Mr Dwyer came to his 13-year-old daughter Aisling's rescue after hearing her piercing screams for help, the Old Bailey was told. 

Despite being threatened with a gun, stabbed three times in the head and beaten unconscious with a knuckle-duster, Mr Dwyer fought back as one of his attackers screamed "kill the b******". 

He managed to wrestle a gun from one of the masked raiders and chased them from his luxury home in Uxbridge, West London, in November 2006, the jury heard. 

Yesterday, Irish-raised Mr Dwyer, a construction boss, faced two of the three men accused of the burglary. 

Brothers Michael and Dean Atkins are also on trial for the murder of restaurant owner Helen Chung, 65, the day before the break-in. 

A third man, Joseph Carty, committed suicide in his cell last year while on remand for both offences. 

The court heard Mr Dwyer, Aisling, now 14, and his son Danny, 19, were asleep when three men burst in. 

He said: "I heard people running up the stairs and Aisling screaming 'Dad'. I had never heard screaming like that before. I knew something was clearly wrong." 

Mr Dwyer said he jumped from his bed and ran towards Aisling's room but was confronted at the doorway. "There were three guys coming towards me," he said. 

"All masked, all covered with balaclavas, gloves, padded out, forensically aware. 

"One man was holding a gun, waving it about, screaming menacingly." 

He said they attacked him after he agreed to show them where his safe was, one with a knuckle-duster. 

Mr Dwyer said: "I took quite a few blows at that point. 

"I have seen things on television and I have seen violent stuff but I have never seen this level of violence. 

"I was being compliant and they were smashing and bashing me." 
Mr Dwyer was knocked unconscious for a few minutes and when he came round one man was holding a knife to Aisling's throat and screaming: "I am going to cut your f****** daughter". 

Mr Dwyer said: "We were going to die anyway, that's what I thought. I thought, if I am going to die then I would rather die like a man than a dog." 

Mr Dwyer pushed the weapon away before striking the attacker. 

"I hit him several times, I hit him plenty. The man with the knuckleduster screamed 'He's fighting back the b******, kill the b******, he's fighting back.'" 

Mr Dwyer said he was stabbed three times in the head but managed to fight the raiders off and shut the bedroom door. But the men tried to push back in and they fought again, he said. "I have never used a weapon in my life and it was a great feeling. 
Fatally wounded: Helen Chung died after she was beaten by the three men



"I grabbed the gun and bashed it across the knuckle-duster guy. Next thing is they took off and I chased them down the stairs." 

The raiders fled empty-handed, leaving Mr Dwyer with broken ribs and 30 cuts to his body and head. 

The court has heard the blood of Mr Dwyer and the restaurant owner were found on the gun at his home. 

Michael Atkins, 25, and Dean Atkins, 26, both of no fixed address, deny murder, two counts of aggravated burglary, wounding with intent and possession of an imitation firearm with intent. 
It is claimed the two also murdered Mrs Chung the previous night after she refused to reveal the hiding place of her £218,000 life savings when they broke into her home. 
The court has heard the blood of both the businessman and the restaurant owner were found on the gun when it recovered from Mr Dwyer's home. 
A DNA sample matching Joseph Carty, 21, - who later hanged himself in his cell at Belmarsh prison last February - was also discovered on the handle and on swabs taken from the face of Mrs Chung. 

Dean Atkins had escaped from Stanford Open Prison in on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, just two days before the attack in Cowley, west London, on November 5, 2006. He was allegedly picked up by his brother and Carty. 
Kam Fum Chung, known by all as Helen, was grabbed as she returned home at Meadow View, Cowley, after finishing work at the Chinese Mandarin restaurant in West Drayton. 
Within minutes of arriving home she was repeatedly kicked and stamped and died from multiple fractures to her skull, face, neck and ribs. 
Michael Atkins was arrested six weeks after the attack on December 21 in the Southwick area of Brighton, East Sussex. 
Dean Atkins was arrested in the early hours of November 18, 2006, when a car was stopped in the area of Langley, Berkshire, near West Drayton, west London. 
The trial continues.
__________________


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## JeffWard (Aug 24, 2007)

If he'd left his room with a nightstand gun, it might have ended quicker... and with less of a trial.

JW


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## JeffWard (Aug 24, 2007)

My bad... he was a sitting duck. Civilians can't own pistols in England. Shotguns???


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## submoa (Dec 16, 2007)

How can anyone oppose the death penalty for scum like these! Dwyer deserves a medal.


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## Mike Barham (Mar 30, 2006)

No shotguns, either. Look up the case of poor Tony Martin.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

*What will happen next:*

Mr. Dwyer will, of course, later be put on trial by the Crown for viciously attacking the three burglars.
Then he will be sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to make one of the burglars commit suicide. He will live out the rest of his life in the cell he will share with Tony Martin.
After the criminal phase of Mr. Dwyer's litigation is complete, the families of the three burglars will sue him in civil court for damages resulting from the injuries the men suffered, and from abetting the wrongful death of one of them.
This civil suit will be successful, and Mr. Dwyer's home will be sold to settle the judgment against him.
Don't believe me? Read up on Mr. Martin's trial.


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## fivehourfrenzy (Aug 12, 2007)

> I have never used a weapon in my life and it was a great feeling.


Maybe he'll do the right thing, move to the states, buy himself a Glock or XD, 870 express, and a few knives, then join HGF. :mrgreen:


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## john doe. (Aug 26, 2006)

Hey, what a minute. Are you sure this really happened? Guns are not allowed in England so how did they get one? You know that once guns are banned then no one will ever be able to get one... right?

Just look at Washington D.C. Isn't that the safest city in the US?


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## gmaske (Jan 7, 2008)

tnoisaw said:


> Hey, what a minute. Are you sure this really happened? Guns are not allowed in England so how did they get one? You know that once guns are banned then no one will ever be able to get one... right?
> 
> Just look at Washington D.C. Isn't that the safest city in the US?


:smt082:anim_lol::smt110:smt110:smt110:smt165 :smt180
You have a very sick sense of Humor


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

It is my understanding that pocket knifes are also illegal in England. You have to take up a sport that uses something to substitute as a weapon.:numbchuck:

The English do carry a lot of canes and umbrellas. Properly constructed they might suffice against knifes and fists.

:smt1099


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

*Canes and umbrellas...*



TOF said:


> It is my understanding that pocket knifes are also illegal in England. You have to take up a sport that uses something to substitute as a weapon.:numbchuck:
> 
> The English do carry a lot of canes and umbrellas. Properly constructed they might suffice against knifes and fists.
> 
> :smt1099


You may not believe this but, in England, if you use your cane or umbrella in self-defense, the police and the courts may find that you had armed yourself with a weapon in preparation for defending yourself against attack.
Carrying _*any*_ self-defense weapon is illegal in England. A cane or umbrella used in self-defense is therefore, by reason of the use to which it was put, a self-defense weapon.
You can find this in both statutes and case law.


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

Steve M1911A1 said:


> You may not believe this but, in England, if you use your cane or umbrella in self-defense, the police and the courts may find that you had armed yourself with a weapon in preparation for defending yourself against attack.
> Carrying _*any*_ self-defense weapon is illegal in England. A cane or umbrella used in self-defense is therefore, by reason of the use to which it was put, a self-defense weapon.
> You can find this in both statutes and case law.


Absolute lunacy. :smt076

Why did we bother to save their asses in WW2

:smt1099


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## babs (Nov 30, 2007)

Unbelievable! What a story.. And yeah, what idiotic idealism is it over there that a person cannot lawfully use whatever force necessary to defend himself or his family... Honestly!! Sticks, umbrellas!?!? They'd go after the person that defended themself with a freakin' umbrella??!?!? I guess breakin' bad all Bruce Lee on their a%% wouldn't go over well at all either I 'spose. :numbchuck:


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## gmaske (Jan 7, 2008)

I went to England before 911 and had a small lock blade pocket knife that I carried in my pocket. There was no real screening leaving the states so I didn't have a clue. I almost didn't make the flight coming back because of that knife. Totally illeagal over there....Needless to say thay still have the knife. Knife crime over there is real common like gun crime here. People are always getting cut over there. It's the weapon of practical choice.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

*There'll always be an England...if we bail them out again.*

A little while before WW2, the UK made laws effectively removing guns from most of the population. Guns were confiscated and destroyed.
When the war started, Britain found itself in quite a pickle because it couldn't produce military weapons quickly enough to arm (and re-arm, after Dunkirk) its military and its conscripts. And, of course, all the privately held weapons that had been in the country were no longer there.
So they appealed for help to the one well-armed country in the world, the U.S., and Americans donated their privately held arms to the cause. They were shipped to Britain for use in training, and for arming the local over-age militias who were to defend British soil against invasion.
When the war was over, almost all of those donated guns were...you guessed it...collected and destroyed. No, they were not returned to their original owners in the U.S.!
Perfidious Albion, indeed.
Not to mention "Those who refuse to study history will eventually be condemned to repeat it."


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