Farmer hit in head with rock after row with dog walker
A FARMER has been hit in the head by a rock after an argument with a dog walker, prompting a police investigation.
Christopher Pine, 70, was ploughing a field in Creech St Michael, near Taunton, in Somerset, when he says the dog walker hurled dirt at his tractor and then warned him not to plough the footpath.
Mr Pine asked him why he threw the dirt and the dog walker replied that he should not “plough the footpath”.
The tenant farmer explained that he had a right to work the land before the man launched the rock at him and then ran off.
Pictures after the attack showed blood pouring from a wound to Mr Pine’s head just above his left ear which required hospital treatment.
Mr Pine’s wife, Jane, said: “Without any provocation or anything else, this walker threw dirt at him as he was driving past.
“So he stopped to ask ‘what’s the problem’ to find out why he’d done this.
“He was then told ‘don’t plough the footpath’, which, of course, he wasn’t – he does everything 100 per cent correctly. We rent the field so in a sense you’re even more careful with what you do.”
Mrs Pine added: “With that he picked up a rock – and there are rocks there the size of your hand – and threw it at my husband’s head, then he ran off.
“He is 70, and [it was] purposefully thrown. If my husband had been looking maybe two inches the other way he’d have had his eye out.”
Local residents have expressed both their disgust and best wishes online.
Mr Pine’s son has thanked people for their kind words and reassured them his father is “fine – just a few staples” after taking himself to A&E.
The assailant has been described as being a man in his mid-thirties with dark hair on the sides and back but balding on top.
He was also of slight build, and was wearing shorts and walking with a grey Staffordshire terrier.