AN IRATE shopworker carried out a hammer attack on a Good Samaritan who stopped to help after seeing him grab a girl around the neck.

Goran Hussain made several attempts to hit the passer-by over the head, but was fended off – although he did manage to strike him on the back.

Hussain, 38, had been angered when a group of girls pulled down a sign belonging to the Easy Shop convenience store, in Victoria Road, and dragged it down the road.

The Northern Echo: STORE: The Easy Shop convenience store in Victoria Road, Darlington, where Goran Hussain worked. Picture: GRAEME HETHERINGTON

STORE: The Easy Shop convenience store in Victoria Road, Darlington, where Goran Hussain worked. Picture: GRAEME HETHERINGTON

After confronting the group, he was seen grabbing hold of one of them by the neck and trying to pull her across the road back to the store.

Prosecutor Emma Atkinson told Teesside Crown Court he “had his hand raised as if he was going to slap her”.

She said that a 35-year-old local man, on his way home from work, saw what was happening and stopped his car to intervene.

Miss Atkinson said the passer-by challenged Hussain, telling him: “You don’t hit girls” and “They are just kids”.

However, Hussain became abusive, swearing at him, and continued trying to pull the girl away, before walking back to the shop and returning with a hammer.

“[The victim] tried to defend himself by raising his arms and the defendant made several attempts to hit him on the head.

“The hammer did connect with his back and he received grazing as a result.”

In a statement the victim said he felt the group were in danger from Hussain. He said: “I did not think that someone would go to the extreme of using a hammer to attack me.”

Hussain, an Iraqi Kurd who came to the UK in 2002 who is married with three young children, had a 2005 conviction for using a knife to slash a man across the back after an altercation in a Durham car park.

He was also given a suspended jail sentence after being found guilty last September of being in possession of non UK-duty paid cigarettes.

Amrit Jandoo, mitigating, said Hussain had been targeted by members of the public in the past because of his ethnicity and subject to “sustained abuse”.

He had also been harassed and confronted at the shop where he worked and generally did not react.

He said Hussain went to speak to the girls, but was himself abused, before being challenged by the victim.

“It was a culmination of events, he simply snapped on this occasion and took matters into his own hands.”

Hussain, of Bedford Street, Darlington, admitted affray, common assault and possession of an offensive weapon on February 3 this year.

Judge Simon Hickey said an immediate jail sentence was called for. He jailed Hussain for a year, saying it was the least sentence he could pass.