A BUILDER who had a long-running feud with another man has dodged prison after attacking him with a metal bar outside of a residential home.

The victim was there because his girlfriend had gone in to show colleagues their baby.

Jason Reynad was passing in a van and jumped out with the pole to launch the "spontaneous" assault, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The other man tried to run off and seek protection behind a fence, but Reynard started hitting that as well.

Ian Hudson, mitigating, said it had been a "chance encounter" as he was on his way to work last October, and bar was for his job.

Reynard, 23, of Church Hill, Easingwold, North Yorkshire, admitted assault, possessing an offensive weapon and criminal damage.

He was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence, with £140 hours of unpaid work, and also fined £1,500 and ordered to pay £460 costs and £500 compensation.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told him: "There was bad blood. It's got to stop."