A JEALOUS grandad who attacked a man with a hammer in a Tesco Express car park in Bradford has been jailed for 18 months.
Jerome Rutty pushed and slapped his former partner, struck her male companion with a hammer, damaged his car and stole the keys and a phone, Bradford Crown Court heard today.
Prosecutor Ella Embleton said the offences happened in the supermarket car park in Otley Road at 8pm on March 18.
Rutty, 38, of Richmond View Park, Sheffield, pulled up in his Audi. He was angry and began punching the man to the stomach, face and head. He was also shouting abuse at his ex-partner and calling her names.
He took a hammer from the car and struck the man on the leg. When the woman intervened, he pushed and slapped her.
Rutty then used the hammer to damage the man’s red VW Golf, making off with the vehicle keys and the woman’s phone.
The male was treated at Bradford Royal Infirmary for swelling to his face.
He said in his victim personal statement that the attack still played out in his head and some nights he was unable to sleep.
A blood-stained hammer was seized from the Audi along with a glove with blood and Rutty’s DNA on it.
He went on to plead guilty on the day of his trial to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault by beating, criminal damage, theft and possession of the hammer as an offensive weapon.
Andrew Dallas said in mitigation that Rutty had been in custody for five months.
He now accepted that the relationship was over. He was frustrated and angry at the time and there was a ‘flashpoint.’ His only convictions for violence were as a youth. The offences were out of character for him as an adult.
He was a grandfather whose upbringing had not been easy.
Judge Jonathan Rose conceded that Rutty’s last conviction for an offence of violence was 20 years ago.
He said it was clear that there was ‘a high element of jealousy’ on the day.
Rutty had armed himself with a hammer when there was a young child present. He had been unable to restrain the violent characteristics present in his past.
“It was an unprovoked and unwarranted attack in a public place,” Judge Rose told him.
He made a five-year restraining order to prevent Rutty from having any contact with the woman except through solicitors.
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