Furious pensioner, 73, hurls ROCK at company director neighbour

A raging pensioner was caught on camera throwing a giant rock at his company director neighbour in a boundary row over a garden fence – in the latest spat after he installed CCTV and barbed wire on his £467,000 home.  

Alan McTear, 53, from Tavernspite in south-west Wales, was inside a mini-digger laying a new fence when he was confronted by 73-year-old neighbour Christopher Woodward.

A court heard Woodward first lay down in the digger bucket before picking up a rock as big as his head, and was seen hurling it towards Mr McTear – who runs an engineering consultancy firm. 

It smashed the glass window of the mini-digger when their row over their garden fence reached boiling point.

The two men had been in dispute over a strip of land between their homes since Mr McTear moved into the countryside village of Tavernspite, Pembrokeshire from Scotland in 2018.

Magistrates were told Mr McTear believed the disputed land was his and sought to fence it off but Woodward, whose £201,000 house is just down the road from his neighbour, insisted it was a public footpath.

Woodward lost his temper when he saw a mini-digger in the area to prepare the land for fencing on April 9 this year.

Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones, said Woodward went on a one-man protest to lay down in the digger bucket – but got out before it started to move.

He was then filmed on Mr McTear’s bodycam picking up a large rock and hurling it over his head towards the Tekeuchi digger.

Mr Pritchard-Jones said the rock smashed the windscreen and landed near the driver’s toes.

He added: ‘Clearly it was a dangerous act. The rock could have come through the screen and hit him. Fortunately he did not suffer any injury.’

Robin Shellard, defending, said Woodward had lived in peace at his home for 15 years, until Mr McTear and his family moved in to a detached property 300 yards away.

Mr Shellard said: ‘Mr Woodward had lived comfortably with neighbours for all those years, then found that the atmosphere had changed.’

Haverfordwest Magistrates were told the relationship soured after Mr McTear, who rents out two holiday cottages on his land, started using motion sensitive surveillance cameras facing Woodward’s home, erecting barbed wire fencing and taking possession of the footpath.

Mr Shellard said: ‘April 9 was a culmination of a history of pressure on Mr Woodward.’

‘He snapped after a long culmination. He was constantly under supervision by five cameras, and subjected to verbal aggression whenever he went outside his home.’

‘Clearly it was not planned, it was a spontaneous act after a good deal of background.’

Magistrates imposed a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered Woodward to pay £317.74 in compensation, costs and a surcharge.

He was handed a 12 month restraining order banning him from contacting Mr McTear of going within 50 yards of his house.