Alcoholic battered his old friend with metal pole at South Yorkshire allotment shed home

Derek Tart was already drunk when the 56-year-old man visited his Wombwell "smallholding," near Barnsley, on May 20, 2019, and drank three more cans of lager before they disagreed about whether someone they knew was dead or not.

Tart held the four-foot piece of scaffold "like a baseball bat," prosecutor Neil Coxon said, then hit his friend over the back of the head with "extreme force," knocking him to the ground.

The man tried to ward off further blows while begging him to stop, before Tart discarded the pole and began punching him in the face.

They wrestled with the pole until his victim managed to keep Tart back by pushing it into his chest.

"Because of the reversal of fortune, Tart was shouting for him to stop," said Mr Coxon. "Eventually a compromise was agreed upon and they both got up."

The man, who has known Tart for 20 years, was bleeding from his head, eye and forearms. He was treated at Barnsley District Hospital for a fractured finger and a deep laceration.

In a statement he said: "I actually thought he would kill me and had I not managed to break free, I think he would have done."

He said Tart knew he’d had a kidney transplant but still hit him, despite knowing it could be fatal.

Robert Sandford, mitigating, said the incident was a "wake-up call" for Tart, who drinks eight to ten cans of lager per day.

He said Tart, care of Main Street, Wombwell, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.

Tart has numerous health problems, the court heard, but since 2011 had lived "quite contentedly" in "a wooden structure," keeping chickens and pigs and growing vegetables.

Judge Roger Thomas QC described the assault as "nasty and sustained" that could have “taken him to prison for a good few years."

On Friday, at Sheffield Crown Court, he imposed a 21-month prison sentence, suspended for two years because of Tart’s age and health.

He ordered him to attend a six month alcohol treatment course with 25 days of rehabilitation.

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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