footprint embedded on man's head is helping police track down his attacker

The imprint of a shoe or boot can clearly be seen on Johnathan Robinson's head
By Jaya Narain It is the sort of shocking image more likely to be seen in a violent American television crime show.
The clues left by a footprint embedded in the head of a robbery victim would be enough to have the forensic experts from the popular Crime Scene Investigation series homing in on the perpetrator.
And, far from the show’s glamorous recreations of Las Vegas and Miami, detectives in Salford are hoping the same methods will lead them to the brutal robbers who left pub landlord Johnathan Robinson needing emergency surgery.
Mr Robinson, 33, was attacked and run over by his own car as he left the Golden Lion pub with £2,500 of takings.
As he lay on the ground with a broken leg a thug viciously stamped on his head before seizing the cash.
Last night police said the clear imprint of the trainer or boot could lead to the arrest of the four-strong gang.
Forensic officers took close-up photographs of the footprint on Mr Robinson’s forehead and they were scanned into police computers.
From there, they can be digitally compared with footprints already on the system or with prints lifted at other crime scenes in the future.
Detectives are also checking footwear databases and speaking to manufacturers to find a match.

Detectives are checking footwear databases to try and find the thugs responsible
The robbery happened on Monday as Mr Robinson left the pub in Clifton, Salford, where he lives with his wife Donna, 35, and two children, aged six and four.
As the landlord sat in his car the passenger door was opened and a man began to repeatedly punch him in the face.
Mr Robinson said: ‘The driver’s door then opened and another was screaming at me to hand over the money.
‘I managed to push the door into him and tried to run back to the pub. But they ran over me in the car. My leg was shattered.
'I couldn’t get up and they stamped on my head. At that point I blacked out and they took the cash from my pocket. The last thing I remember was their car screeching away.’
Detective Sergeant Julie Connor said the footprint was ‘an absolutely vital clue’.
She added: ‘Many people have been convicted of crimes by matching the footprint to the footwear.
'We can even make matches to latent prints found, for instance, in a house or on a path. more