A RETIRED teacher sustained a punctured lung and feared to leave his house after a man pushed him and left him unconscious in the street, a court heard.

Paul Daniel Davie, 40, was jailed after appearing in Weymouth Magistrates' Court for sentencing for wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent.

Prosecuting, Elizabeth Valera, said that at around 11am on May 29 last year, the victim, Stewart Johnstone, 68, was walking near shops in Fortuneswell on Portland and stepped in front of a car parked outside a newsagent.

Ms Valera said the car suddenly moved which ‘startled’ Mr Johnstone and caused him to jump and step back.

Mr Johnstone heard the female driver shouting at him telling him to take more care, to which he said he shouted back something like 'it’s you that needs to take more care’.

Ms Valera said Davie, of Mulberry Avenue, Portland, who had been sat in the passenger seat got out and walked round to the rear.

In a statement read out to court, the victim said Davie ‘grabbed’ him by the chest pushed him with force backwards with ‘aggression’, causing him to fall and hit the back of his head on the window frame of the newsagent.

The victim said he hit his head on the windowsill and felt his elbows hit the ground before passing out.

Ms Valera read out a statement from a witness who said they saw the defendant force the victim backwards with his forearm against his chest. The victim was then seen ‘slumped’ over sideways and members of the public ran over to him when they realised he had been knocked out.

Dorset Echo: Weymouth Magistrates Court

The defendant got back in the car which quickly drove away.

Mr Johnstone was left in a lot of pain and members of the public took him home, and an ambulance was called.

A police officer said he was ‘in agony’, was ‘sporadically shouting in pain’ and was experiencing difficulty breathing. Police were said to be ‘extremely concerned for his health’.

An ambulance took ‘some considerable time’ to arrive before the victim was taken to hospital where it was confirmed he had sustained a punctured lung and that there was bleeding in his chest cavity. He had to stay in hospital for four days.

A victim impact statement from Mr Johnstone said that he was taking a ‘plethora of tablets’ to deal with the pain.

He said that the man who did this to him ‘was far younger and stronger’ than him and that, because he did not know the man, was scared to go out again as he feared he wouldn’t recognise him if he saw him again.

CCTV was shown which showed the defendant go to the back of the car get hold of victim, put him on the floor and get back in the car.

Mitigating, Ian Brazier, said Davie believed his wife indicated when the victim stepped out onto the road in front of the car and pointed out to magistrates that the CCTV footage had no sound.

Mr Brazier said that Davie claimed the victim was swearing and being abusive to his wife after she slammed on her brakes and got out of the car.

He said: "Mr Davie gives him a shove.

"He regrets that he took that action and says that if he could go back, he would, and that he would have just wound up the window.

"What he couldn’t have foreseen or predicted was the particular way that this gentleman fell back, resulting in substantial injury.

"The consequences of that were much more severe than anyone could have predicted."

Mr Brazier added: "That soundtrack would have completely changed the way someone viewing it or hearing it would have interpreted it."

Davie had pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing and was due to go on trial, but changed his plea to guilty on April 25 this year.

Chair of the bench, Louise Dutton, said that the case was serious enough to justify a custodial sentence and sentenced Davie to four months imprisonment and ordered him to pay £3,000 in compensation.