A MIDDLE-AGED motorist was beaten over the head with baseball bat when he visited the home of a woman he thought had "cut him up" outside a York supermarket.
York Crown Court heard how following the incident on a roundabout by the Tesco Clifton Moor outlet, Barry Smithson by chance continued driving in the same direction as the woman.
John Edwards, prosecuting,
said when the female motorist arrived at her home in Boothwood Road, Rawcliffe, Mr Smithson spoke to her through his car window so sharply that she ran screaming into her house. Smithson then went home, changed into decorating clothes, and against his wife's advice, went back to the house to "have it out" with the woman.
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As he approached the front door, it opened and the woman's husband, John Taylor, attacked him with a baseball bat.
Mr Smithson sustained bruising and a head injury and suffered numerous headaches following the attack on Sunday, August 26.
The court was told that Taylor, 54, was suffering from long-term mental problems, including depression, anxiety and panic attacks and his father had died two days before the attack.
"You didn't ask for Mr Smithson to turn up on your doorstep," said Judge Stephen Ashurst. "But you were not justified in picking up that baseball bat and using it on him."
He said Mr Smithson didn't know about either the Taylors' bereavement or the illness.
About the incident he said: "I am not here to decide the rights or wrongs of it.
"Grown-ups ought to be able to drive within their limitations and keep a level of self-control."
For Taylor, Andrew Semple said although the families lived in the same area, there had been no repetition in the months since.
Taylor pleaded guilty to wounding and was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months on condition that he carries out 18 months' supervision and a probation service rehabilitation course.
He must also pay £500 compensation to Mr Smithson.
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