A “cantankerous, arrogant and obsessive” pensioner who attacked his neighbour over a perceived parking dispute has been jailed for four and a half years today.
Defendant David Leavers, now 71, armed himself with a metal bar and a spade as he attacked neighbour David Hughes, 51 at the village of Llan Ffestiniog in Gwynedd, North Wales.
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One of the victim’s fingers was almost severed in the attack and a bone in another finger was fractured.
Injured and bleeding, Mr Hughes staggered back into his car to seek refuge at which point Leavers grabbed a saw and lashed out at the vehicle.
Leavers, convicted by a 10 to two majority at a trial last month, maintained his innocence during the proceedings and did not accept the guilty verdicts of wounding with intent and criminal damage to his car.
'Bizarre' allegations
Judge Rhys Rowlands branded Leavers a cantankerous, arrogant and obsessive man who he said had made some “bizarre and totally irrational” allegations.
He said that old age could not be seen as some sort of shield to a custodial sentence but he took into account his age and ill-health.
The judge also made a ten year restraining order under which he is not to approach his victim or his mother.
Judge Rowlands said Mr Hughes showed commendable and remarkable restraint during the attack last December but said that Leavers had shown “quite the opposite” and demonstrated “significant violence” despite his age and ill-health.
He added: “This case ought to serve as a warning to those who fall out with neighbours over trivial matters and then harbour an irrational grudge as no doubt you did.”
The trial heard how on the morning of December 12, Mr Hughes had wanted to move his car so that he could drive to the front of his home at Peniel Terrace, Llan Ffestiniog, to take his elderly mother for a birthday treat.
But the court heard that Leavers had deliberately blocked Mr Hughes’s vehicle in with his own car.
When asked to move out of the way the defendant lost his temper, got out and took hold of a heavy iron bar.
The judge said Leavers then launched a sustained attack and sought confrontation to show “who was boss.”
'Devastated'
Judge Rowlands added: “For a man of your age, with no previous convictions, you behaved in a quite extraordinary fashion.”
Anna Price, prosecuting, told how the attack had a profound effect on the victim, his mother, and on his father who had since died.
Mr Hughes needed surgery and underwent plastic surgery at a unit on Merseyside.
In addition to the physical scars, the still suffered the mental scars of what took place and needed counselling in the summer.
Simon Mills, defending, said that his client maintained his innocence and did not accept the verdicts.
His family, who were delightful people, were devastated, were very concerned for him, and were worried that he might not survive the prison sentence he was about to receive.
Away from the mindset of the proceedings and the neighbour dispute he was a warm man of good humour.
It was clear that he suffered health problems, he had heart difficulties and had been taken to hospital at one stage during the trial.
The defendant was a man who had done army service, had worked hard over the years and had led a perfectly decent life for 70 years said Mr Mills.
See- http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/blaenau-ffestiniog-oap-jailed-attacking-10615676
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