Gardener who left dad-of-three '1cm from death' after axe attack in Suffolk pub jailed for 24 years

A landscape gardener who swung an axe into a father-of-three's head after getting annoyed with him "joking and laughing about" at a pub has been jailed for 24 years.

David Perry was kicked out of the Bell Hotel in Clare, Suffolk, after he became aggressive.

But instead of going home, he went to his pick-up truck to grab the axe and returned to the pub.

Judge Martyn Levett told Ipswich Crown Court that Perry "took exception" to a group, including self-employed builder Matthew Cutts, "joking and laughing about".

Sentencing the 40-year-old gardener, he said Perry "took the axe, wielded it over your right shoulder with both hands, landing it into the head of Matthew Cutts" while inside the pub on 19 March last year.

He said that if the axe had struck just 1.0cm away, on a thinner section of Mr Cutts' skull, then he was "sure there would have been some permanent brain injury or death".

The judge said Perry, who had been drinking, had become aggressive and was ejected from the pub, before returning with the axe.

He said that Mr Cutts, who is married with three children, "still struggles to find words" after the injury, and it "gets worse when he gets tired".

Perry, of St Margarets Place, Stradishall, Suffolk, denied attempted murder but was found guilty following an earlier trial.

He had admitted wounding with intent and to possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.

Carolyn Gardiner, prosecuting, said that Mr Cutts, who was 37 at the time, made a "rapid recovery following surgery" but was off work. He has since returned, and is now back but only working part-time.

He lost his driving licence and some of his independence, and no longer plays golf, goes fishing or to the gym, the judge said.

Claire Matthews, mitigating, said Perry's "actions that night amounted to a red mist descending".

"He didn't go into the pub that night intending on causing anyone trouble but he disproportionately reacted to a situation that arose," she said.

"It was that outburst of rage that he has regretted and felt shame for ever since."

The judge sentenced Perry to 24 years in prison.

He also made him subject of a restraining order not to contact any member of the Cutts family, and ordered that the axe be destroyed.

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