A 26-YEAR-OLD who repeatedly hit a man with wrench has been jailed for 12 months.

Joel Smith went armed with the weapon to his victim’s house intending to damage his car in a bid to put a stop to a long-running issue between them.

But Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Smith “lost control” when he saw the victim outside his house in Littledown Avenue and turned the weapon on to him.

Desmond Duffy, prosecuting, said the victim was closing the gates outside his home in the early hours of April 24 last year when Smith walked past and then “pounced towards him” with a chrome-coloured metal object.

“Mr Smith struck him at least three times with the wrench.”

Both men fell to the ground and the victim was punched and kicked by Smith, Mr Duffy added.

The victim suffered four lacerations on his head and one on his earlobe, two of which required stitches.

Mr Duffy said the victim was also prescribed antidepressants and diazepam and required a filling to repair a broken tooth.

David Richards, mitigating, said Smith had pleaded guilty to wounding. He said Smith’s actions were not premeditated and that he had gone out with the wrench to damage a car.

• Jailing Smith, of Seafield Road, Bournemouth, for one year, Judge John Harrow said: “I think that you were under a great deal of stress as a result to the extent that you even made an attempt, serious or not, to take your own life.”

But he added: “You cannot take the law into your own hands. Something got hold of you, you snapped and you went there armed with a wrench.”