Drinker chucked out of pub returned with axe and attacked man he rowed with
An angry drinker who was thrown out of a village pub stormed back in with an axe to launch a terrifying attack.
Landscape gardener David Perry has been convicted of attempted murder after a jury saw terrifying video of the savage incident.
Ipswich Crown Court heard how the 40-year-old got into a row with a family drinking in the 16th century Bull Hotel in the village of Clare in Suffolk.
After Perry was ordered to leave, he grabbed the three-foot long axe and ran back into the bar.
He brought the weapon down in a blow that split open gardner Matt Cutts’ head.
Mr Cutts, 32, who lives in the village, fell to the ground and suffered a deep cut in his skull.
The jury heard how surgeons had told him he had escaped death by just a millimetre.
Perry, who lives in Stradishall five miles from the village, had been watching a nearby family laugh and joke in the pub on the night of the incident.
He later told police he approached the group because he thought a woman in the party was being harassed.
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.
He was rushed to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge for emergency surgery.
Perry left the pub and drove around for several hours before going into a supermarket and telling a shop-worker about his situation.
At a previous court appearance, he pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place.
Det Con Jacqueline White of Suffolk police CID said: ‘This was a cowardly attack and a frightening experience for the victim, the family and all those who witnessed this incident. He is very lucky to have survived.’
It took the jury more than eight hours to reach a 10-2 majority guilty verdict and Perry will be sentenced by trial Judge Martyn Levett next month.
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