Hucknall man broke baseball bat over neighbour's head in long running feud

Joshua Hallam was initially friendly with the 31-year-old man, who lived in the flat above him on Salterford Road, but 'things went downhill' after the pair made noise complaints about each other to the council.

He was previously convicted of criminal damage after flicking a cigarette into his neighbour's flat in July 2019, prosecutor Stuart Pattinson said.

And matters came to a head just after lockdown was imposed in April 2020, when his neighbour was dismantling an old sofa in his garden.

Hallam began pacing up and down and smiling at him ‘in a strange way’, he said.

When his neighbour ‘told him to go away in so many words,’ Hallam brandished a pitchfork and said: “I am going to kill you.”

The 32-year-old shouted ‘various obscenities’ and tried to get into his neighbour’s garden, thrusting the pitchfork over the fence and making contact on one occasion.

Hallam got a baseball bat and chased the man into the communal area of the flats, where he brought it down with such force on the man’s head it broke in two.

His neighbour ‘tried to protect himself and got the better of the defendant, who eventually submitted,’ said Mr Pattinson.

DIgby Johnson, mitigating, said Hallam had never been in trouble before he lived on Salterford Road.

He has had 'long term involvement' with the psychiatric services and his medication dosage was changed in late 2019.

Everyone involved has met since and there has been no breach of the peace, Mr Johnson added.

Hallam, now of Co-operative Avenue, Hucknall, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm on the day of a trial last year.

On Tuesday Recorder Michael Auty QC told him: "If you choose to strike someone on the head you take their life into your hands."

He said it was remarkable that 'subtle changes in medication can lead to drastic changes in behaviour,' adding that Hallam was now stable, and had kept himself out of trouble.

He imposed a 15-month prison sentence but suspended it for two years, with 20 rehabiltation days.

Hallam was banned from contacting his neighbour, or his neighbour’s girlfriend, for five years.