A father of two has spoken of his terror after being doused with an unknown substance outside a Kent pub, leaving him unconscious and fearing for his life. Adam Tickner, 33, from Sittingbourne, was attacked at Ye Arrow in Rochester in September 2025. His assailant, Alfie Russell, 23, from Hornchurch, East London, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) and affray, a lesser charge than the original grievous bodily harm (GBH), and received a suspended sentence.
Mr Tickner, an assistant headteacher, was at the pub with his wife and friends when a stranger punched one of his companions. He intervened and was sprayed with a corrosive-like liquid. “I fell to the floor. My eyes were stinging and my mouth was swollen – I lost consciousness,” he recalled. Firefighters hosed him down for 30 minutes before he was taken to Medway Hospital, where he spent four days with burns to his face, eyes, mouth and throat. Doctors told him he could have died if the substance had entered his throat.
Despite medical assessments labelling the liquid corrosive, Kent Police stated that on-scene tests found no traces of acid or alkali. The water used to wash the substance rendered Mr Tickner’s clothing unusable for forensic analysis. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised emergency out-of-hours charges based on initial evidence, but later accepted a guilty plea to ABH and affray after discussions between Russell’s legal team and prosecutors.
At Maidstone Crown Court on 5 January 2026, Russell received a 45-week suspended prison sentence, 150 hours of unpaid work, and was ordered to pay £2,000 in compensation – including £1,200 to Mr Tickner. The victim said he was not informed of the charge reduction and only learned of the sentencing after stumbling upon the hearing online. “I was expecting him to be jailed,” Mr Tickner said. “The doctor said if it had gone down my throat, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Kent Police’s DCI Beverley Morrison acknowledged the attack was “deeply distressing” and noted that the CPS had made victims aware of the amended charges in court. The CPS added: “We recognise this attack was deeply distressing for Mr Tickner.” Mr Tickner, however, remains upset that the substance was later described as hand sanitiser, a downgrade he believes undermines the severity of the incident.
