A former convict who once hacked off the whole ear of a man with learning difficulties in a gruesome Reservoir Dogs-style attack is now on the run.
Police are today appealing for help to find Alan Cunningham who came to notoriety in 2008 when he was locked up for carrying out the appalling attack, forcing the torture victim to sing while his ear was sliced off.
In chilling scenes, the then-26-year-old ordered the terrified man to lick an animal’s food bowl, before taking turns to beat him and attempt to slice off his ears.
When younger brother Christopher, then 21, failed to remove all of the victim's left ear with a serrated bread knife, Alan took over, amputating the whole of his right ear.
The pair recorded the horrifying attack on a mobile phone, before taunting the bleeding man, who had difficulty reading and writing, with pieces of his mutilated ears, asking if he “wanted them back."
Just days earlier, ex-amateur boxer Alan Cunningham had carried out a carbon copy attack, forcing his victim to bark like a dog and sing I’m A Little Teapot while he cut through his ear.
The later attack, for which Alan Cunningham was jailed for a minimum of six years for grievous bodily harm, but in fact served ten years, meant he was released on May 17, 2018.
But after three years a free man, the now-39-year-old is effectively a fugitive, being searched for by police who want to put him back behind bars.
That is because the Kensington man has breached the terms under which he was released.
A Merseyside Police spokesman said today: "Extensive enquiries have been ongoing to trace him since.
"Cunningham is described as white, 6ft tall, with thinning brown hair and grey eyes."
Prosecutors told how the brothers launched a “sustained and gruesome” attack on the second victim after he refused to carry out a one-off drug deal.
Following threats, their target and his pregnant girlfriend fled to Bournemouth, but when the brothers began to threaten his family, the 21-year-old returned to Merseyside.
When he arrived at Alan Cunningham’s house in Toft Street, Kensington, the older brother punched him in the face before setting a dog on him.
The pair then kicked, stabbed and sliced at the man, whose right ear was totally amputated.
He also lost 30% of his left ear.
Five days earlier, Alan Cunningham launched a “chillingly similar attack."
He enticed a drug addict to a house in Warrington, offering to sell him drugs.
Over the course of 10 minutes Cunningham, who had two kitchen knives, forced his victim to sing the Village People hit "YMCA", nursery rhyme "I’m A Little Teapot" and to bark like a dog while cutting through his ear.
Both brothers were jailed indefinitely in 2008 for public protection.
Younger brother Christopher Cunningham, from Walton, was jailed for a minimum of three-and-a-half years after he admitted the attack on one of the men.
Anyone with information on Cunningham’s whereabouts is asked to contact @MerPolCC or 101 with reference 21000225634.
You can also pass information anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or contact them via their online form at: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/give-information.
