Jealous husband jailed after attack on wrong man

Feb 28 2008 by Chloe Griffiths, Liverpool Daily Post

A JEALOUS husband has been jailed after a case of mistaken identity led to him savagely beating an unlucky workman he wrongly thought was sleeping with his wife.

Steven Dunne travelled to Liverpool city centre from his home in North Wales, armed with a two-foot pickaxe handle, to confront a man he believed was having a sexual affair with his wife.

But Liverpool Crown Court yesterday heard a stream of unfortunate coincidences led Dunne to assault the wrong man, workman Phillip Hall.

Yesterday, site supervisor Dunne – who has no previous convictions – was jailed for six years for the attack.

Dunne had rang the man he suspected of sleeping with his wife the night before the assault on December 17 last year, shouting abuse and threatening to come to his place of work, the building site on Hanover Street, to confront him.

Unbeknown to Dunne, the man took the following day off work.

The next day when Dunne arrived at the site, he saw Mr Hall leaving his wife’s office.

The court heard, in a tragic coincidence, at the exact moment Dunne rang the suspected adulterer’s phone to confirm his identity, the unfortunate Mr Hall lifted a cigarette to his mouth.

He wrongly thought he was answering his phone.

Dunne, 43, of Trem-y-Creigiau, Llangollen, admitted a charge of causing grievous bodily harm.

Judge Bruce MacMillan said: “You travelled from your home to Liverpool specifically to confront this man you thought was having an affair with your wife.

“You weren’t going to argue with him, you came to teach him a lesson.”

Accepting Dunne’s remorse, and the “extreme emotion” he was under at the time, he sentenced him to six years in prison.