An irate builder threw a brick through the windscreen of a tractor injuring the driver, Skipton magistrates were told this week.

The incident followed an altercation over the right of way to a Dales farm track.

The court heard how the tractor driver feared for his safety after Stephen Ernest Hume tried to pull open the door of the vehicle as it stopped near a farm in Hanlith, near Kirkby Malham.

But the farm labourer managed to escape after sustaining a cut to his head which needed three stitches.

Hume, 42, of Throstle Nest, Oldfield, pleaded guilty to assault and criminal damage when he appeared before the court on Wednesday.

He was conditionally discharged for 12 months and ordered to pay £200 compensation and £70 costs.

Mike Hammond, prosecuting, said Hume had been one of a number of builders working on a barn conversion.

The farm track was often blocked by building materials and the tractor driver used his horn to alert the builders that he needed to get through.

But on December 21 last year the tractor driver accidentally broke a plank of wood as he tried to squeeze his vehicle along the track. An angry Hume tried to pull open the tractor door and then picked up a brick and threw it at the windscreen, smashing the glass and hitting the driver on the head.

In mitigation, the court heard how Hume had simply 'lost it' in a moment of frustration and had not meant to harm the driver.

He had since tried to patch things up with the tractor owner and the labourer and had paid for the damage to the vehicle.

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