A rugby fan became “annoyed” and angrily pushed a woman during a bad-tempered confrontation that was sparked after they had both been to watch the same match and were about to drive home.
Kitchen fitter Steven McHugh lost his temper after the woman reversed her car very close to his father’s new Jaguar. He became increasingly frustrated after she kept him and others who were with him waiting for too long before she finally started to drive off in her car from where they were both parked.
She hurled an insult at him and he seemingly did not like being “told what to do by women”. He had a “touch of arrogance” and was “patronising in the extreme” during the nasty exchange, Hull Crown Court heard.
McHugh, 48, of Thorn Road, Hedon, denied an offence of assaulting the woman on July 28, 2023 but he was convicted by a jury after a trial.
Harry Bradford, prosecuting, said that a woman and her son left a Hull Kingston Rovers match at Craven Park in the evening and walked back to their parked car. She and her son got into the car and she reversed it.
“In doing so, she came into close proximity with another vehicle,” said Mr Bradford. “That vehicle contained the defendant and two others. He got out of the vehicle to check if contact had been made. It had not and he got back into the vehicle.”
The woman waited some time to pull out into the traffic and this delay seemed to annoy McHugh and he swore at her. He got out of the car again and approached her vehicle.
He punched the window and the woman got out of her car. “The defendant walked over to her and pushed her with both of his hands, causing her to fall back into her car,” said Mr Bradford.
Judge Mark Bury told McHugh: “She and her son had been watching the same rugby match as you at Craven Park and you both parked near the school on Marfleet Lane. You both got back to your cars at more or less the same time.”
It was accepted that the woman reversed her car very close to McHugh’s father’s new Jaguar. “No one is surprised that you and he looked at the rear of the car to make sure that no collision or damage had happened,” said Judge Bury. “It’s agreed that none had.”
The woman did not move off as quickly as McHugh would have liked – and he could not move until she had done so. McHugh was “less than polite in ascertaining the reason for that”.
Judge Bury told McHugh: “You were annoyed. You were even more annoyed when she called you a ‘d***head’. At this point, she got out of the car.” The woman had admitted that, if there had been a next time, she would not have done that.
“You pushed her because you were in ill-humour at this point,” said Judge Bury. “You pushed her quite hard back against the frame of her car so she hit her back, shoulder and head. She wasn’t injured save for some bruises that cleared up quickly.”
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McHugh had a “touch of arrogance” when he said to the woman’s son that he “did not require his input” – and it was “patronising in the extreme” to do that. “I suspect that you don’t like being told what to do by women,” said Judge Bury.
“This was a push, not a direct blow. No injuries were caused by you.”
Amber Hobson, mitigating, said that McHugh was working self-employed in his own business as a kitchen fitter. He had no previous convictions and he had two children at home.
He could afford to pay a fine – but only at £100 a month. Judge Bury said: “He might have to fit a few more kitchens.”
McHugh was fined £2,000 and he was ordered to pay £650 costs. It was agreed that he could pay £100 a month.
McHugh denied a more serious offence of assaulting a man, causing actual bodily harm, and another offence of assaulting a female during another part of the same incident and he was cleared by the jury of those matters.