A Callington man who set up a vicious iron bar attack on his love rival was jailed for four and a half years by a judge this week.
Anthony Nash used a woman decoy to lure his victim, Andrew Cresswell, out of his home, Stafford crown court heard .
Lying in wait in the backyard, and masked with a balaclava helmet, Nash then hit Mr Cresswell over the head with a metal trolley jack handle, said Anthony Potter, prosecuting.
Mr Potter said Nash had travelled over 200 miles from his home in Cornwall to carry out the assault. The background to the offence was the relationship the two men had with Mr Cresswell's then estranged wife, Karen. She had had a previous relationship with Nash in Cornwall, but then moved to the Stafford area and married Mr Cresswell in l996. Two years later the marriage hit trouble, and Mrs Cresswell moved back to Cornwall and began seeing Nash again. She began to have second thoughts, though, about her marriage break-up and persuaded Nash to give her a lift to Stafford to seek a reconciliation.
Everything seemed to be amicable, although Nash got to know that the couple had had sexual intercourse during the visit. A few days later Nash left Callington, having persuaded an ex-girlfriend to help him. The woman knocked on Mr Cresswell's door and pretended that her car had broken down. As he left the house, Nash launched the attack with the iron bar. As a result Mr Cresswell suffered a cut on the back of his head which needed six stitches, and a gash on his lower lip which needed ten.
Mrs Cresswell told police her ex-lover could be a prime suspect, but Nash at first denied leaving Cornwall that day. A man fitting his description, though, had been identified at Hilton Park services on the M6. Mrs Cresswell also noticed when she saw Nash the next day he had some injuries. He eventually confessed to the attack.
Nash, aged 35, of Magpie Cottage, Calli-ngton, admitted a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Judge John Fletcher told Nash he accepted he would have been in a state of confusion and unhappiness because of his relationship with Karen Cresswell, but the attack on her husband showed 'planning and determination' which could not be overlooked.
Michael Elsom, defending, said there was no excuse for what Nash did, but the unhappy relationship with the estranged wife went some way towards explaining why a normally calm man should resort to this behaviour.
He had been recruited by Mrs Cresswell to write letters to her husband on her behalf, and took her 300 miles to visit him. To then find out that they had been having sexual intercourse while he was waiting to take her back home to Cornwall must have hit him hard.
Nash was normally a hard-working man and many people spoke highly of him.