Driving row in Stockton led to men arming themselves with pickaxe handle and claw hammer

A driving row led to two men arming themselves with a pickaxe handle and a claw hammer.

Hammer-wielding Richard Mark Thompson left court with a conditional discharge after a judge heard how his older adversary was let off with a caution.

Thompson, 25, took exception to a young woman’s driving and the situation escalated when her father entered the fray, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Police received reports of two men fighting on Melbourne Street, central Stockton at 7.15pm on July 7 last year.

One independent witness saw a group of five to six people surrounding a white van, prosecutor Emma Atkinson said today.

Thompson was seen holding a claw hammer threatening to “smash your brains in” to the occupant of the van.

The other man was seen holding a large stick and the words “come on then, let’s go for it” were heard shouted in the street.

Another witness saw the men grappling after “aggressive” Thompson swung the hammer towards the other man.

The other man, aged 54 and of previous good character, admitted he grabbed Thompson in a “disagreement” after he was called names.

He said he took the wooden pickaxe handle, a tool of his trade, from the van and threatened Thompson with it.

Then he said Thompson came back at him with the hammer, the court heard.

He was given a caution for possession of an offensive weapon last December.

However Thompson, of Wembley Way, Oxbridge, Stockton, faced a possible prison sentence.

He had previous convictions and was given a suspended 15-month jail term a month before the fracas for burgling a home while a woman and her eight-year-old grandson slept.

He admitted a charge of threatening with an offensive weapon.

He told police he confronted the other man over frequent speeding down the street.

Sporting swollen knuckles, Thompson confessed he punched the older man then returned with the claw hammer.

Duncan McReddie, defending, said this was Thompson’s first conviction for violence.

He said the other man was the first to produce a weapon, then Thompson got the hammer from his girlfriend’s home.

The judge, Recorder Jonathan Aitken, gave Thompson a 12-month conditional discharge with a £15 victim surcharge.

He said Thompson was a “sizeable guy” and the other man in the dispute thought he was just “rescuing his daughter”.

He told the defendant: “He puts his hands on you first and then you seem to have struck him.

“He went to get a pickaxe handle and things escalated.

“It would have been a very good idea from your point of view not to come back at that stage.

“The development of it was something that you didn’t anticipate.

“And by the time you did do something criminal you had lost your temper. You were facing a man with a wooden stick.

“This is something which has spiralled out of control. No one was hurt. The person who had the weapon first got a caution.”