Shocking moment angry drinker thrown out of village pub returns to bar and attacks punter’s head with an AXE
AN angry drinker attacked a punter’s head with an AXE after being thrown out of the pub, shocking footage shows.
David Perry, 40, ran back into the village bar with the three ft long weapon and split open gardener Matt Cutts’ head.
Perry had been in a row with a family group drinking in the 16th century Bull Hotel in Clare, Suffolk, moments before.
Mr Cutts, 32, who lives in the village, was felled and suffered a deep cut in his skull and the jury at Ipswich Crown Court heard surgeons told him he had escaped death by a millimetre.
The court was told that Perry, who lives in Stradishall five miles from the village, had been watching the family group laughing and joking in the pub.
He later told police he stepped in because he thought a woman in the group was being harassed and made fun of – even though her relatives told him she was family.
But his intervention ended in a fight and he was ejected from the pub – only to storm back in minutes later swinging the axe.
Witnesses told how Mr Cutts had no time to defend himself and was was felled instantly by the blow on the right side of his head.
Shocked staff and customers called police and the ambulance servive and Mr Cutts was rushed to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge for emergency surgery.
A surgeon said later that he had avoided permanent crippling injury or death by millimetres.
Perry left the pub and drove around for several hours before going into a supermarket and telling a shop-worker about his problems.
The jury took more than eight hours on Tuesday to reach a 10-2 majority guilty verdict.
Perry will be sentenced by trial Judge Martyn Levett next month.