Horncastle man attacked supermarket worker over ‘serious lies’

George Nigel Watling, 55, of Jobson Road, admitted assaulting Thomas Peckham by beating when he appeared at Boston Magistrates’ Court yesterday (Wednesday).

Prosecuting, Ali Zaki said Mr Peckham was working at Horncastle’s Co-op store at 1pm on March 22, when Watling approached him and ‘launched himself at him’, hit him on the head and causing him to fall and hit his head.

He said Watling got on top of him and Mr Peckham said he was struck several times but didn’t know if he was punched or kicked, leaving him with a bump and bruising on his head.

Watling was arrested and said he had attacked Mr Peckham who, he alleged, had told ‘serious lies about his son’.

Mitigating, Elizabeth Harte said Watling had committed no previous offences of violence, but he believed that ‘certain unpleasant allegations’ had been made about his son and he went to find Mr Peckham at his place of work and assaulted him.

The magistrates said that the victim had been ‘assaulted at his workplace and in public’ and that he (Watling) had ‘shown little remorse’.

He was given a 12 month community order and ordered to undergo 20 days of rehabilitation and to pay £100 compensation to Mr Peckham and £85 in costs.