Part-time soldier punished forattack on disabled neighbour

Colin Buckley (44), of Kingsway Road, was sentenced at Mansfield Magistrates Court.

After a trial in June he was found guilty of attacking John Harris, who is blind in his left eye, has a finger missing from his left hand and suffers from heart problems.

At the previous hearing, the court heard that Buckley was crossing Kingsway Road at about 4.30 pm on February 14 while delivering newspapers when Mr Harris pulled round the corner in his Nissan X-Trail car.

Buckley, a member of the South Notts Hussars Territorial Army (TA) unit at Bulwell, was in the middle of Mr Harris’s lane and the driver pipped his horn before telling him to “stop daydreaming and watch where he is going”.

A heated argument followed and Buckley snapped.

The court heard how the pair had had a long-running neighbour dispute.

Witnesses saw Buckley throw a couple punches at Mr Harris through the open car window before opening the door and raining down more blows.

Mr Harris, who was strapped into the driver’s seat by his seatbelt throughout the assault, suffered a wound to his chin that had to be glued shut, cuts and bruising above his right eye and bruising on his jaw.

It was suggested at the trial that the dispute between Mr Harris and Buckley had included problems with Buckley’s children.

The court was told by Robert Glansfield (defending) that Mr Harris had been round to Buckley’s house a week before the attack and grabbed his partner, Tracy Perkins, to threaten her about Buckley parking his car over his driveway.

This was denied by Mr Harris who admitted that he and Buckley had had their “disagreements like any neighbours”.