Dad attacked ex-partner’s friend with metal bar while two-year-old daughter was present in flat

A dad who beat up a man while his two-year-old daughter was present in the flat using a broken-off piece of a high chair and a metal bar has been jailed for 10 months.

Zane Hodkin launched a sustained assault on his victim, a male friend of his ex-girlfriend, in March this year, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

After visiting his ex-girlfriend’s flat, he saw the other man sitting on the balcony and without speaking immediately went over to him, kicked him off his stool and began kicking him in the head and face.

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Hodkin, aged 21 and of Nodder Road, Intake, then started punching the man while shouting abuse at him.

Inside the flat, Hodkin then picked up a piece of plastic from a broken high chair and began hitting the victim so hard in the face with it that the plastic bent.

The court heard Hodkin then picked up a metal bar and began hitting the man around the head.

The victim was left with extensive bruising and grazing and told court in a statement that he gets flashbacks to the attacks when he closes his eyes to go to sleep at night.

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The court heard Hodkin has previous convictions for robbery and battery, but nothing since 2010 when he was still a juvenile.

Richard Jepson, for Hodkin, said his client accepted he had been a ‘complete fool’ in ‘committing an utterly stupid act of violence’.

But he added that his client was a devoted father who has tried to make amends to his young daughter for her being present in the flat when the incident happened.

Sentencing Hodkin for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, Judge Sarah Wright said his victim had not fought back because the presence of a young child in the flat.

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“You knocked him off a stool and kicked him to the head and face and you also punched him,” she said.

“You moved into the living room and restarted your assault on him, hitting him so hard that the piece of plastic broke.

“You armed yourself with a metal bar and hit him on the top and side of his head. He didn’t fight back because your child was present.

“Thankfully – and no thanks to you – it appears there will be no long-term impact. This was a serious, unprovoked assault on a defenceless man with the use of a weapon.

“It is so serious only custody is appropriate.”

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The Star is happy to clarify the following point in relation to an article about Zane Hodkin, aged 21 of Nodder Road, Intake, being jailed for 10 months for assault occasioning actual bodily harm that was published in the paper and online on December 8, 2015.

He was jailed after he attacked a male friend of his ex-partner in her flat.

Mr Hodkin’s family state that his two-year-old daughter was not in the room when the attack took place, but accept she was in the flat when the incident happened.