Jealous ex jailed after stereo attack
A MAN who hit his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend over the head with a stereo has been jailed.
Adam Speak attacked Neil Cotton with the object in the early hours of June 24 last year.
The 37-year-old, of Lower Gate in Paddock, had been drinking when he went to Mr Cotton’s flat in Harold Wilson Court, Southgate, Huddersfield, where the woman was asleep in the bedroom.
Bashir Ahmed, prosecuting, said: “[Speak] assaulted him by punching him to his head repeatedly then picking up a stereo system, or speaker to the stereo system, and hitting Mr Cotton over the head with it.”
Leeds Crown Court heard the woman called the police and when they arrived Speak was outside.
He told them he had beaten up Mr Cotton and that he was ‘in a bad way’ and ‘deserved’ it.
Mr Ahmed added: “It’s not entirely clear what the defendant’s motive for the offence was, but I think the history might tell something about why it occurred.”
The victim suffered a small amount of bleeding in the brain, a bruise and a deep cut that was closed with glue.
In a victim personal statement read to the court, Mr Cotton said the attack has affected his mental health and he is upset that he was unable to defend himself.
Speak, who has two previous convictions, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding.
Abigail Langford, mitigating, said Speak has served time in the army and suffered with his own mental health issues.
She added that there may have been another reason for the attack other than jealousy.
Judge Simon Phillips QC sentenced Speak to two-and-a-half years in jail.