A drunken thug swung an axe at a van driver who tried to help him after seeing him standing in the middle of the road trying to direct traffic.
Paul Rodgerson was swigging alcohol from a glass and claiming to be helping children cross the road but there were no youngsters present. When the van driver got out and tried to help him, he turned nasty and ended up smashing his window with an axe and trying to headbutt him, then grappled with him on the ground.
Newcastle Crown Court heard it was around 3pm on July 26 last year that the driver of a while van with blue stripes was on Great Lime Road, in Forest Hall, North Tyneside and ended up in a queue of traffic. Nick Lane, prosecuting, said when he got to the front of the queue he noticed Rodgerson.
