'They thought I was brain dead' - Student scarred for life after violent man attacked two women just hours apart

Warning: This article contains graphic images some readers may find upsetting.

A violent man attacked two women enjoying nights out in Sheffield just hours apart, leaving one so bloody and badly beaten that her parents feared she had been left brain dead.

A student named only as Emily awoke “covered in blood” with her parents and paramedics in her bedroom.

“When my parents saw me they thought I’d been left brain dead,” the 21-year-old said.

The last thing Emily remembered was being on the ground on London Road, midway through an attack being carried out by a man later identified as Matthew Ward.

Ward stopped the attack when a Good Samaritan, responding to Emily’s screams, intervened and took her home.

During the court case that followed, Emily learned Ward was seen doing up his trousers and belt as he left the scene.

She says the thoughts of what might have been, had the Good Samaritan not stepped in, continue to haunt her.

A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said Ward was captured on CCTV following, and then running after, Emily as she made her way back home from Dempsey’s nightclub on Hereford Street.

Emily was rushed to hospital to be treated for injuries to her badly beaten face, arm and legs.

She has been left with scars to her cheek, eye brow and under her eye, as well as to her wrist and leg, and her eyes remained bloodshot for weeks afterwards.

Emily describes feeling horrified when she saw the bloodied state Ward had left her in for the first time.

“Looking in the mirror, that was something else,” said Emily.

Ward was quickly identified, and was arrested on West Street on the same day as the attack.

The spokesperson said around three hours before attacking Emily, Ward punched another woman who was on a night out in the city centre, after allegedly attempting to solicit sex from her and her friend. She was left with a bloody nose, following the assault.

A short time before the assaults on April 25, 2026, Ward was released from a 22-month sentence for an attack on another lone woman, in which he pinned her to the ground and suffocated her.

Ward, of Duke Street, Park Hill, Sheffield, admitted charges of intentional suffocation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and was sentenced for that incident on May 28, 2025.

He pleaded guilty to a further charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to his assault on Emily, as well as a common assault charge for the attack on the second woman.

Ward, 21, was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment during a Sheffield Crown Court hearing last month.

Emily faced Ward in court to read her victim impact statement, and said she was determined to “look him in the eye the whole time.”

The attack came towards the end of Emily’s degree course in Sheffield. She says that whilst she had an “amazing” time during her three years in the city, Ward’s actions have ruined her “whole experience.”

Emily is now trying to move forward with her life, and has recently begun her first graduate job.

Despite her best efforts, however, the physical and psychological scars from the attack remain.

“I’m still struggling…it’s affected every area of my life,” said Emily, adding: “One significant area is the way it’s impacted my parents. They are so, so shaken up…it’s been hard”