Man lashed out at pals after being ‘wound up’
FUNERAL guests were left with broken bones after being sent tumbling down some stairs by a pal who lashed out after being wound up about his new girlfriend’s “characteristics”.
Graham Dickson had been subjected to a “slow burn provocation” about his partner when he snapped in a “moment of stupidity”.
As a result of the fall, Michael Norris was left with a fractured collarbone and Keith Robertson suffered a fractured vertebrae, among other injuries.
Both men needed hospital treatment and said their day-to-day lives have been affected long term after the attack in September last year. Prosecutor Paul Cross told Newcastle Crown Court the offence happened “at a wake where all had a lot to drink”.
Dickson, of Fallow Park Avenue, Blyth, Northumberland, admitted assault.
Recorder Simon Goldberg told the 40-year-old: “You were at a funeral with a group of your friends and after the funeral you went to a wake, at which you and your friends had been drinking all day.
“By the evening you had gone to a bar in Ashington.
“Two of your friends had left the bar to have a cigarette outside and were making their way back upstairs.
“The context in which this happened was you had recently got together with a new partner and, it is fair to say, Mr Robertson, Mr Norris and some other friends had been winding you up all day, over an extended period, about certain characteristics of your new partner.
“As they came upstairs, Mr Norris was slightly ahea. As Mr Norris made it around half way up a second flight, he saw you at the top of the stairs.
“There doesn’t appear to have been any exchange between you and Mr Norris or Mr Robertson but what you did was lash out with your foot.”
The judge added: “I am satisfied, having listened to the evidence, what you did was deliberately kick Mr Norris in the face.
“The effect of that was Mr Norris fell backwards and he fell into Mr Robertson and they both stumbled to the bottom of the stairs, suffering, what I regard, as serious injuries.
“This was a moment of stupidity by you.
“It doesn’t mater how much you had been provoked, what you did was completely unacceptable.”
The judge sentenced Dickson to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with programme requirements and said he was prepared to treat the offence as a “moment of madness”.
Roderick Hunt, defending Dickson, said the single parent dad waited at the scene for the police to arrive and “apologised immediately”.
Mr Hunt said Dickson has been prevented from apologising further to the men since the attack as a result of his bail conditions and feels guilty about what he did and remorseful for losing the friendships.
Mr Hunt said there was a background of “slow burn provocation” and added: “When someone is a dripping tap, insulting this man’s new partner again and again and again then one can understand, though obviously not forgive, why the attack happened.”
Mr Hunt said Dickson was friends with the victims and had not gone out looking for trouble or “wanting the joy of the fight” and has behaved “impeccably” since.