Neighbour broke into victim’s flat and hit him with dumbbell
A MAN broke into a neighbour’s flat and beat him about the head with a dumbbell, a court has heard.
Lee Mckinnon later told police he had gained entry to the downstairs flat by smashing a window, and had wanted to kill his neighbour.
Swansea Crown Court heard Mckinnon has long-standing mental health issues, and at the time of the brutal assault was likely experiencing auditory hallucinations and feelings of paranoia.
Sian Cutter, prosecuting, said the background to the incident was a long-running dispute between the two men which had seen both parties making numerous complaints and allegations about the other.
The court heard that on November 26 last year Mckinnon was playing loud music in his flat and his downstair neighbour began banging on the ceiling to try to get him to turn it down, without success.
Nothing further happened that day, and the victim subsequently went to bed. However, he woke in the early hours of the following morning to find Mckinnon standing over him brandishing a weight-training dumbbell and shouting “Come on, then!”. With that the 51-year-old defendant struck his victim to the head a number of times.
The court heard the victim managed to push his assailant off, and bundled him out of the flat.
Police were soon on the scene and arrested Mckinnon, while the casualty was taken to hospital. Scans showed no bone injuries, but two 3cm wounds on his face were glued shut.
The dumbbell used in the assault was found in the defendant’s flat, and Mckinnon told officers he had “taken the law into his own hands” after his complaints about the man living downstairs went unanswered. He told officers he had gained entry to his neighbour’s flat by smashing the living room window, and that he had wanted to kill him.
In an impact statement read to the court, the victim said he was considering moving as he no longer felt comfortable living in the flat.
Lee Mckinnon, of Emlyn Terrace, Pensarn, Carmarthen, had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary with intent to commit grievous bodily harm when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 11 previous convictions for 16 offences including two for assault occasioning actual bodily harm – one saw him threatening people in a shop with a plank of wood and kicking his victim, and the other saw him kicking and punching his father in the ribs.
Kate Williams, for Mckinnon, said a psychiatric report into the defendant detailed long-standing mental health difficulties exacerbated by alcohol dependency.
The court heard the person Mckinnon assaulted also had mental health issues.
Judge Paul Thomas QC said it was fortunate that the injuries inflicted by the defendant were not more serious. He said a very experienced psychiatrist had concluded that at the time of the attack Mckinnon was likely experiencing auditory hallucinations and paranoid ideation.
With a one-third discount for his guilty plea, the defendant was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
The judge noted the prosecution had decided not to charge Mckinnon in connection with the comment he had made about wanting to kill his neighbour, and said that was a decision with which he agreed.