A Saundersfoot man who callously beat up an elderly neighbour in a ‘vicious attack’ over a parking feud has admitted an ABH charge in court.

Fifty-two-year-old Jeremy Mannings, of The Ridgeway, appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday to admit a charge of causing actual bodily harm to another male on November 30.

Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told magistrates that he would be inviting them to send the case to Crown Court as the punishment powers of the court would be insufficient.

He explained that the victim was a vulnerable man in his 70s and that the defendant was considerable younger.

“The defendant and complainant are neighbours, so it’s always a sorry state of affairs when these matters result in this outcome,” he said.

“It appears there have been long standing issues between Mr. Mannings and other members of the community over parking matters in this area.

“On this day the complainant was reversing his car down the lane to leave at around 8.30 am when the defendant appeared and challenged him, whilst also videoing the complainant on his mobile phone.

“I’m not quite sure what the defendant was doing, as it was a rather pathetic action to be filming a neighbour reversing, but the complainant got out of his vehicle and words were exchanged between the two, before Mr. Mannings threw him to the floor and appears to kick him in the stomach,” he explained.

Magistrates were then shown CCTV footage of the incident, and also heard that an eye witness had seen the assault.

“As you can see from the footage, after the victim goes to the floor, Mr. Mannings then lines him up and delivers a series of meaningful punches to his head,” continued Mr. Pritchard-Jones.

“The eye witness also stated that she saw Mr. Mannings kicking the victim at least three times whilst he was on the floor.”

The court heard that the witness stated ‘this really shook me’ going onto describe the incident - ‘as I walked closer I saw the victim being punched by Mr. Mannings, who delivered tremendously powerful blows to his head. I genuinely believed he only stopped kicking the victim when I appeared.’

“This was a particularly vicious attack and totally unnecessary,” Mr. Pritchard_Jones told magistrates.

“It shows the callous nature of the defendant that he recorded the victim laying on the floor on his phone after the attack, rather than thinking ‘Oh my god what have I done’ and helping him up.

“The victim was seen by medical staff and required stitches to a laceration on his ear and treatment for a stamp wound on his hand,” he added.

Defence solicitor Tom Lloyd told the court that Mr. Mannings was entirely of clean character.

Magistrates declined jurisdiction of the case and Mr. Mannings was ordered to appear at Swansea Crown Court on January 3 for sentencing.

He was released on conditional bail, not to contact the complainant directly or indirectly.