A LANDSCAPING contractor confronted a love rival and hit him over the head with a piece of fishing equipment after discovering his wife had ended their marriage, a court heard.

In the end, both spurned husband David Whittaker, who was armed with a fisherman’s ‘priest’, a wooden implement, and his younger opponent, Andrew Douglas, tumbled down stone steps after a violent struggle, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Wife Christine Whittaker had revealed to a friend she had been having an affair during a caravanning holiday in Lancaster – but the admission was overheard by her teenage son, said prosecutor Kimberley Obrusik.

This led to her telling her husband that their relationship was over and immediately leaving the site for the home of Mr Douglas.

Miss Obrusik said David Whittaker, 50, then turned up at the front door, demanding to see his wife, but was pushed away by the younger man on at least two occasions.

The husband returned with a fishing ‘priest’, a small wooden club used to stun catches, and hit him over the head with it.

As Mr Douglas was falling, he took the older man with him, causing them to both fall halfway down a flight of stone steps.

Mrs Whittaker was then able to intervene and step between them, before her husband fled, saying: “This is just the beginning.”

The court heard Mr Douglas suffered a four-inch cut that required eight stitches. Mrs Whittaker and Mr Douglas had been involved in an affair 11 years previously before the romance was re-ignited, the court was told.

Whittaker, of Deerstone Road, Nelson, who admitted assault and possession of an offensive weapon, was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay £200 compensation.

Robert Elias, defending, said: “All of this is completely out of character for David Whittaker, who is hard-working family man.”

“He was under enormous stress at the time due to his wife’s somewhat selfish attitude towards her family commitments. The defendant wants to put this behind him.”