A DISPUTE over a greenhouse ended in an assault which left the victim with a fractured skull, three broken ribs, a badly swollen face and numerous other injuries.

Craig Gray "surprised" the injured party, who came banging on the door and window of his house in Shildon, at 1.30am on August 20 last year.

The 45-year-old roofer went out of the back door and approached the unwanted visitor from behind, as he continued to try to call him out to settle the dispute.

Durham Crown Court was told Gray punched him several times about the head and then delivered several stamps to his torso and upper body after he went to the ground.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, described it as a "sustained and repeated" assault, committed with such force that he left the 54-year-old injured man with four forcible stamp marks on the left side of his body and trunk area.

Mr Dryden said the after-effects have seen a deterioration in the mental health difficulties already suffered by the victim.

Gray, of Market Place, Shildon, denied wounding with intent, but, following a three-day trial at the court in which he claimed he acted in self-defence, he was found guilty of the alternative of unlawful wounding, but without the intent element.

Dan Cordey, mitigating, said despite the prosecution description of it being a "sustained beating", it was over, "quite quickly".

Mr Cordey said it was "trouble which came to the defendant's door" that night, and so, there was a lack of pre-meditation in his response.

"He didn't go looking for trouble, and, I would certainly say, one way or another, there was severe provocation in this case."

Urging Recorder Ian Atherton to pass a suspended sentence, Mr Cordey added: "It was a matter that started as self-defence, but Mr Gray then took it to excess."

The court heard that despite some convictions for violence in his younger days, the "hard-working" defendant has only one offence for minor theft on his record in recent decades.

Recorder Atherton told Gray: "I regret to say I can't pass a suspended sentence in this case.

"The public would expect more in the light of the catalogue of injuries suffered here.

"It was, indeed, a sustained assault on the defendant using a shod foot."

Imposing a prison sentence of two years and nine months, he also ordered Gray to pay £500 compensation to the victim, £500 court costs.