Oliver Crowe, 21, of Southgate, Pickering, was out drinking with friends in Whitby on Friday, September 11, last year, when he started causing trouble outside the home of Robert and Vicki Taylor, of Hungate, Pickering.

Mrs Taylor had sent her 11-year-old son and his friend out to close the garden gate at around 7.30pm when she became aware of Crowe in a drunken state outside.

John Swoboda, prosecuting at York Crown Court on Wednesday (July 21), told how Mrs Taylor went out to be met with abuse from Crowe and it was then that her husband went out.

Mr Taylor was met with a beer can thrown at him by Crowe, who then rushed up and stood menacingly, nose-to-nose with the householder.
Feeling under threat, Mr Taylor grabbed Crowe's clothing around the neck area and pushed him back away from his gate, the defendant's reaction being to pull a bottle of vodka from his pocket and hit out with it.

Mr Swoboda said that Mr Taylor suffered a cut to the top of his head which later required the insertion of four stitches.

After walking away from the scene, Crowe did return when the police were present, claiming to have drunk 12 cans of beer and to have been acting in self defence.

The court heard that Crowe has a previous record for a serious assault and a reprimand for an offence of battery.

Matthew Stephenson, mitigating, said that his client had suffered a stroke at the age of 10 which had left him with some brain damage and very little use in his right arm.

Adding that the previous offence had been brought about by others taunting him about his disability, Mr Stephenson said that Crowe's reaction to being pushed by Mr Taylor was partly due to his condition.

The court also heard that as a youngster Crowe had witnessed his father beating his mother and, after she and her four children moved out, the family had suffered hardship.

Crowe, who appeared for sentencing after previously admitting a charge of wounding, was jailed for 12 months, Judge Patrick Robertshaw telling him that that his reaction to being pushed had been disproportionate.