Man snatched toddler by the NECK & ran off ‘while holding her upside down’ as terrified mum battled to stop him

A TODDLER lost her toe in a violent fight after a man snatched her from her mother in the street and ran away while holding her upside down.

Martin Enow snatched the 18-month-old girl from her mother in the horrific incident on Mayor Street, Bolton, in what has been described as “every parent’s worst nightmare”.

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The 24-year-old “experienced a psychotic episode at the time” on February 21 of this year.

Enow grabbed the toddler by the neck and tried to run away “while holding her upside down,” prosecutors said.

Her mother, who was with her other child, fought with him and tried to get her daughter back.

A passer-by intervened and held Enow down so the mother could grab the girl, whose foot was bleeding profusely.

Another passer-by stopped her car and ran to her aid, leaving her child in the passenger seat.

Enow then jumped into the driver’s seat of that car but had no keys and ran away from the scene.

He got into the passenger seat of a taxi that had stopped at the junction of Spa Road and Mayor Street and asked the driver to take him to the football stadium, the CPS added.

But the driver refused and locked him in the car until then police arrived.

As a result of the horrific incident, the toddler lost his toe and required foot surgery.

She also suffered a broken arm.

Enow was later charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault at an earlier hearing and found guilty.

Today he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Garry Crawford, Senior Crown Attorney for CPS northwestsaid: “This was a horrifying incident that sums up every parent’s worst nightmare.”

“It is thanks to the quick intervention of the child’s mother, the Good Samaritans and the taxi driver that Martin Enow was stopped before any more harm could be done to the child or himself.”

“We understand that Martin Enow was suffering from a mental illness at the time he committed this offence. It is my hope that now that the case is closed, the child’s family will feel a sense of seclusion and can now begin to put what happened behind them.”

Greater Manchester Police said no custody photo of Enow from Lawson Street in Preston was available.