Angry man used spade on windows

2:50pm Thursday 29th November 2007

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A MAN who believed his ex-brother-in-law was responsible for pouring battery acid or paint stripper on his car armed himself with a spade and went looking for revenge.

Blackburn magistrates heard Kenneth Lindly Hardy intended attacking the other man's car but when that wasn't there he used the spade to smash the downstairs windows of his Billington home causing £1,000 of damage.

And when Hardy went to Clitheroe police station to report the attacks on his and his sister's cars he was arrested for his spade-work.

Hardy, 38, of Roe Greave Road, Oswaldtwistle, pleaded guilty to damaging property belonging to Nigel Harris. He was fined £200, ordered to pay £1,000 compensation and £50 costs.

Liz Parker, defending, said her client's sister and Mr Harris had been involved in a bitter divorce.

"My client believes Mr Harris has poured paint stripper on his car and his sister's car on more than one occasion," said Mrs Parker. "When he got up this morning and found his car had been attacked again he saw red."

Mrs Parker said Hardy, a chef at the Kemple View psychiatric unit, Langho, had no previous convictions.