A troll who racially abused former Newcastle United footballer Ivan Toney has been spared prison for attacking his mum's partner with a bottle.
Antonio Neill, who is awating sentence for sending an offensive tweet to the Brentford striker, said he attacked the man after he had been abusive and violent to him and his mum. A court heard when Neill intervened in a dispute between his mum and the man in December 2021, he claimed he was put in a choke hold.
He ended up hitting the man with a bottle then using it on him after it broke, leaving him with deeps cuts and bleeding heavily. The victim did not cooperate with the prosecution and after hearing the background to the offence, a judge suspended Neill's prison sentence.
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Newcastle Crown Court heard it was in the early hours of December 13 2021 that a 999 call was made to the ambulance service requesting assistance at Neill's mother's home, saying the victim had assaulted Neill and his mother but had "come off worse".
When police got there, the man was slumped in the kitchen, with blood on his face, hands and clothing. There was also a large amount of blood in the kitchen and some in the living room.
He had a deep cut to his forehead, above his eyebrow, a smaller cut to his head, deep cuts to the back of his fingers on his left hand and a number of deep cuts to the front and back of his right hand.
Neill said the man and his mother hand been arguing and exchanging blows and that the other man was aggressive and had assaulted him in the past. He said he was put in a choke hold, which had been done to him previously, causing him to pass out and he feared this would happen again.
He said he therefore picked up a glass bottle and hit him over the head, causing him to fall to the floor. The bottle smashed and he said he used the broken bottle on him, striking his hands as he protected his head.
Neill, 24, of Robert Street, Blyth, Northumberland, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding on the basis of self-defence gone too far and that he would often rescue his mother from violence and that he had been assaulted previously by the victim. He was sentenced to eight months suspended for two years with 150 hours unpaid work and rehabilitation.
He told an officer when interviewed: "Of course I've been excessive mate, I shouldn't have done what I've done but at that point I just couldn't control it."
Brian Mark, defending, said: "He was really a punchbag because his mother was not adequate to deal with it and would leave her son to deal with it. (The man) would use a choke hold on him and three or four times he passed out. That night, he was frightened he would pass out again.
"Without that history, this offence would not have occurred. He thought that man would eventually take his life. The relationship is now at an end."
Neill is due to be sentenced for sending an offensive message to Ivan Toney later this month at magistrates' court. He pleaded guilty to that offence and apologised for it in January.
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