Man hit workmate in face with metal flask knocking out his teeth in lunch break attack

A man has been jailed for attacking his workmate with a metal flask during their lunch break.

Andrew Shadforth, 39, struck the victim with “multiple blows” in the car park at Eggborough Power Station where they were eating lunch inside their work vehicle, York Crown Court heard.

The vicious, unprovoked attack included punches to the head and kicks to the chest of the beleaguered victim, who called police during the incident pleading for help, said prosecutor Helen Towers.

The victim, who was was Shadforth’s mother’s partner and the defendant’s de facto “stepfather”, suffered a 1cm cut to his upper lip and had two of his teeth knocked out from the blows with the flask. Another tooth had been cracked.

The cut to his lip was stitched but he had been left with a “lifelong” speech impediment due to his injuries.

Ms Towers said the victim, who was named in court, was struck with such force that the flask had teeth dents in it.

Ms Towers said despite he and Shadforth having a “fractious” relationship, he took his de facto stepson with him as a workmate.

Ms Towers said their difficult relationship included Shadforth hurling insults at him in the past.

On December 9, 2021, the victim had provided lunch for them at Eggborough Power Station and they were just starting to tuck in when Shadforth started insulting his “stepfather”.

Shadforth moved to the other side of the work vehicle and began punching the victim to the side of the head, before “hitting him multiple times with his metal flask”.

Shadforth then tried to drive off in the vehicle but failed to do so, said Ms Towers.

The victim managed to get out of the vehicle and police were called out. Shadforth was arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He admitted the offence and appeared for sentence today, when the prosecution read out a victim-impact statement highlighting the devastating effect the attack had had on the victim’s life.

The victim, originally from The Gambia in Africa, said he felt “deeply distressed” by the attack. He had suffered “agonising” pain to his gum and “severe” headaches.

He said people struggled to understand him now because he had been left with a lisp and he “feels embarrassed” by his missing teeth.

He was now “very conscious of his appearance” and his injuries meant he couldn’t “smile or laugh anymore”.

Shadforth, from Hawick in the Scottish Borders, had previous convictions but none for violence.

Defence barrister Lily Wildman said that since the incident the victim and Shadforth’s mother had separated.

The fractious relationship between Shadforth and the victim had been “exacerbated by the fact that they were both living together” at the time at the former marital home in Bingham, Nottinghamshire.

Judge Simon Hickey condemned Shadforth for an “unprovoked attack with feet, fists and a flask”.

Shadforth, of O’Connell Street, was jailed for ten months and given a ten-year restraining order banning him from contacting the victim.