A Northallerton man has been jailed after a drunken attack on a man at a funeral wake, causing a skull fracture and bleed on the brain.
Paterson Prentice, 36, slapped the victim in the face, causing him to fall and bang his head on a brick wall outside Northallerton Working Men’s Club, York Crown Court heard.
The named victim was knocked unconscious and remained comatose for about 15 minutes, said prosecutor Gabrielle Coates.
The attack happened on the afternoon of August 20 last year outside the working men’s club on Elder Road where the victim was at a wake for a friend’s funeral.
Prentice, from Northallerton, later turned up at the club but then went outside “complaining that he couldn’t get a drink”.
The victim also went outside where Prentice mocked his appearance but the victim simply “laughed along” at the jibe.
A named woman then offered to get Prentice a drink inside the club and he gave her a £10 note to get them both drinks. After handing the woman the bank note, the victim snatched it from her for a “laugh” and started “dancing around”.
Prentice swung at the victim and the blow, described as a “slap”, caused him to stumble and hit his head on a brick wall, knocking him unconscious.
The victim was taken to hospital where a scan revealed he had suffered a brain haemorrhage.
Ms Coates described the head injuries as a “collection of blood on the left side of the brain and bleeding on the front and both sides of the brain”.
There was also a fracture to the side of the skull, as well as swelling to the brain and a “collection of blood between the skull and the scalp at the back of his head”.
He spent 11 days in hospital before being discharged. The short-term aftereffects included fatigue, sleeping problems, memory loss, a loss of sense of smell, taste and hearing, headaches and dizziness.
In a victim-impact statement, his mother said that he didn’t recognise his father or friends when he was discharged from hospital and had forgotten that his partner, “the love of his life”, had recently died.
A doctor’s report concluded that although these symptoms could partly be attributed to the victim’s alcohol misuse and liver disease, the “primary cause of his symptoms” was the traumatic brain injury from which he had now recovered.
Prentice was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent and admitted the offence.
The attack occurred just two months after another drink-fuelled incident in June 2025 when Prentice assaulted another man, causing injury, outside the victim’s home in Northallerton.
Ms Coates said that the victim was stood on his doorstep talking to a female neighbour when Prentice appeared and began stroking the woman’s dog.
“The dog became defensive and pulled away,” she added.
When the victim said, “I don’t think (the dog) likes you and I don’t either”, Prentice “squared up” to him and adopted a “fighting stance”. He then punched the man in the face, causing a bloodied nose and mouth and two loosened teeth which required dental work.
Following that assault, Prentice handed himself in at a local police station. He was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and admitted the offence.
Prentice – who lived in Vicars Croft, Northallerton, at the time of the offences but was latterly living in a bail hostel in Catterick Garrison – appeared for sentence via video link today (May 18) after being remanded in custody.
The prosecution outlined his long criminal record which included assaults, batteries and shoplifting. There was also a robbery on his record for which he had served a lengthy prison sentence.
His rap sheet comprised 35 previous convictions for 74 offences, the last of which was a theft which resulted in a community order in July last year.
His barrister Adrian Strong said that many of Prentice’s previous offences occurred in his younger years and that more recently he had been working as a plasterer until he suffered a hand injury in a machete attack which meant he had to give up his job. This led to a “downward spiral and returning to the anger issues he had as a youth”.
He said that Prentice had lost his home and a relationship due to the offences.
Judge Sean Morris told Prentice: “You’ve got a terrible record for low-level violence. You must learn to control your temper.”
He added: “You could have been before the courts for one-punch, or one-slap, manslaughter. Fortunately, your victim did not die as a result of the brain injury which has resolved.”
Prentice was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for the GBH offence and four months consecutive for the ABH. He was told he would serve less than half of the total 14-month sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.
He was also made subject to a five-year restraining order banning him from contacting the GBH victim or going to his home in Northallerton.
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