Some People Can Really Hold A Grudge…

Alfred Ryan, of Wallis Park, Northfleet, was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court yesterday (July 30) after pleading guilty to committing an assault causing actual bodily harm.

The incident, which happened on January 12 at The Rose pub in Northfleet, stemmed from a row which had taken place 10 years earlier.

And not even with the man he assaulted, either. With the assailant's father….

Victim Gary Mills was approached by 28-year-old Ryan as he put some empty glasses on to the bar.

Prosecutor Anne Phillips told the court Ryan was sitting on a bar stool staring at Mr Mills. He then walked over to him and asked: "Do you know who I am?"

Ryan said Mr Mills had argued with his father about a three-piece suite.

During the incident in the pub, Ryan said if he had been there at the time he would have "screwed" Mr Mills's head off.

Mr Mills walked away and told his wife, who remembered the incident, but said it was over a gas cooker and had happened 10 years before.

The court heard as the couple went to leave the pub, Ryan approached Mr Mills holding a bar stool.

He slammed the stool against Mr Mills and it caught his face, forehead, right eye and right shoulder. Mr Mills then fell backwards against a wall.

Ryan then jumped on top of his victim but a friend of 55-year-old Mr Mills pulled him away.

So, a 28 year old man assaults (with a bar stool) a 55 year old chap his relative once had an argument with? Pretty inexcusable, you’d think? Well, not for some:

Edmund Fowler, mitigating for Ryan, said: "His dad died when he was 16 years old and he has used alcohol to deal with his father's death, but he knows that should have changed by now."

Yeah, you’d think he’d have learned an alternative way to cope with his loss after twelve years. Well, bet the magistrate didn’t buy it.

Oh:

Ryan was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to pay £1,200 compensation to Mr Mills.

I suspect Mr Mills has as much chance of seeing that compensation as Ryan has of remembering what the original argument was actually about...