Fishing trip ended with beating

An angler ended up in a river fearing he would drown after he was attacked by a thug wielding a piece of wood, a court heard.

Darryl Manners was fishing by the River Medway in Tovil in September, when Carl Quinnell approached and told him: “I told you when you are on your own what I was going to do to you.”

Quinnell, 51, armed with a piece of wood, struck Mr Manners on the back or shoulder who then entered the water, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Witness Donald Sweeney said he was smoking in the back garden of a friend’s home when he heard a man shouting.

“I saw a man standing on the bank shouting at someone or something in the water,” he told the jury.

“I saw just a head bobbing in the water about five or six feet out from the bank. I shouted to my friend about someone in the water drowning. I had a small camera and I took a few pictures and gave them to the police.”

Mr Sweeney said a piece of wood, about a metre long, was thrown into the river.

A woman who lived in a flat nearby said she saw Mr Manners “going down” in the water and thought he was going to drown, but he was dragged out.

She said: “Paramedics arrived. I was quite surprised the man who had been in the water was standing up. “He had blood on his forehead.” Quinnell, of Church Place, Waterloo Street, Maidstone, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm. He denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and was acquitted by a jury.

Recorder Brian Argyle adjourned sentence on Quinnell, who had previous convictions for violence, until April 24 for a report to consider dangerousness.