A bad-tempered confrontation in the street turned nasty and ended up with a “really irate” man assaulting two other men – headbutting one and lashing out at the other. Both victims were left fearing what might happen in the future because of the unexpected violence.
One of the men would have a scar for the rest of his life, Hull Crown Court heard. Lee Dinsdale, 46, of Arundel Close, east Hull, admitted assaulting one man, causing actual bodily harm, and assaulting the other on April 25 last year.
Georgia Bradley, prosecuting, said that, at about 5pm, one of the men was driving his son’s friend to his mother’s home so that he could drop some things off. He parked outside the house and saw a woman come out of a house further up the road.
She seemed to be wandering around the front garden aimlessly. He saw a man – Dinsdale – come outside after her.
“He was being aggressive and was shouting at the female,” said Miss Bradley. The stepfather of the son’s friend came onto his drive and told the woman to go inside.
She went and stood with the stepfather and his partner, who had been in the house. Dinsdale began to shout at the stepfather and the other man, who was sitting in his car.
Dinsdale became “really irate” and started walking towards the stepfather. The other man got out of the car and told Dinsdale to go home and calm down.
Dinsdale shouted things like “Big man, hard man” and started walking towards the man who had been in the car and behaving very aggressively towards him. The man walked towards him and put his hands out.
Dinsdale got close to him, lunged at him and headbutted him.
Dinsdale’s head made contact with the man’s face, causing a cut to his left eyebrow area. He threw punches, making contact with the stepfather, who dodged a few of them.
“The defendant got him with one,” said Miss Bradley. “He then hit him on the face, which was tender but not bruised. A number of people tried to restrain the defendant.”
The man who had been sitting in the car later said that he did not expect to be assaulted and he would be left with a scar for the rest of his life. The stepfather said: “I am not worried about today. I am worried about tomorrow.
“I am worried about what is going to happen after this.” Dinsdale had convictions for 36 previous offences, five of them involving assaults between 1996 and 2008. His most recent offence was using threatening words or behaviour in 2019.
Judge Richard Woolfall said that Dinsdale had been drinking before the incident. He had been jailed for one year in 2001 and he had been “running a bit wild” in his younger days.
He had since made changes and a pre-sentence report was “largely positive” about him. Dinsdale told the court: “I am really regretful for my actions.”
He disputed that he headbutted one of the men and claimed that it was “an open-handed push” but the prosecution did not accept that. “All I can do is apologise,” said Dinsdale.
“I am ashamed of myself. Since periods of incarceration in my misspent youth, I have just worked hard every day.”
Dinsdale was given 140 hours’ unpaid work and he was ordered to pay £400 compensation to one man and £100 to the other man. He must also pay £500 costs and a £114 victims’ surcharge.
Judge Woolfall told him: “I accept you are genuinely remorseful. Get this all done and put all this behind you.”
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