Filey man attacked boys for trying to get conkers

Mohammed Nori, 41, went ballistic when he spotted the Filey schoolboys indulging in the age-old pastime.

York Crown Court heard that Nori had been driving past in his car when he noticed the boys trying to shake conkers off the tree.

He stopped his car and approached the boys where he began to scream at the youngsters, said prosecutor Ben Campbell.

A holidaymaker intervened, telling Nori the boys weren’t doing anything wrong, but the enraged takeaway worker shouted and swore at the youngsters, telling them to “get away from my nana’s house”.

“The holidaymaker said (to Nori) that (the boys) were just getting conkers from the tree, but he ignored her entirely and shouted at them: ‘Do you know who I am?’,” said Mr Campbell.

Nori kicked the wheel of one of the boy’s bikes about five times while shouting at them to leave.

“They were explaining that they didn’t think they had been doing anything wrong,” added Mr Campbell.

But this just further enraged Nori, who marched over to one of the boys and hit him on the back of the head, before grabbing his neck and squeezing it “tightly”, causing reddening and grazing.

Nori then grabbed the other boy by his coat and pushed him while screaming at him.

Bystanders and residents, including a couple with two young children, intervened and put an end to the matter.

One witness described Nori as “out of control”. Police were called and Nori was arrested at the scene.

He was charged with two counts of common assault and admitted the offences, which occurred on September 17 last year. However, about three weeks later, he was arrested on suspicion of affray and assault in connection with another alleged incident.

He denied those matters and was due to face trial on Wednesday, but the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges because no witnesses had turned up in court.

Nori was staring at a jail sentence anyway for breaching a suspended prison sentence imposed in March last year for criminal damage, public disorder and possessing a knife in public.

Nori, of Heron Court, The Pastures, was found not guilty of affray and assault in connection with the other alleged incident, in which he was alleged to have gone to a woman’s house in Filey over a dispute and brandished a Stanley knife in front of her and her partner.

The court heard he had previous convictions including one for public disorder in October 2013 in which he came out of his house with a cricket bat during a dispute over the ownership of a vehicle.

He kicked the vehicle repeatedly, causing damage, while acting in a “threatening manner”.

Defence barrister Martin Robertshaw said Nori, who was accompanied by a Farsi interpreter, was “aware that prison is almost inevitable for (his latest) offences”.

Judge Paul Worsley QC said: “At the moment he’s looking at prison doors which are wide open.”

However, the case was adjourned for reports and Nori was given bail until sentence on June 18.