A PENSIONER has been accused of almost severing his next door neighbour’s finger after attacking him with a shovel during an argument.

David John Leavers, of Peniel Terrace, Llan Ffestiniog is alleged to have attacked David Lloyd Hughes during a row about parking.

The alleged victim lost part of the little finger on his right hand which was said to be “almost severed.”

During the first day of a trial at Caernarfon Crown Courton Monday, prosecutors claimed the 71-year-old attacked 51-year-old Mr Hughes with an iron bar, a garden shovel and a saw on Friday, 12 December, last year.

Barrister Elen Owen told a jury of seven women and five men that the two men had been in neighbourly disputes in the past and that matters came to a head in a row over Leavers’ obstructing Mr Hughes from manouvering his car.

The younger man was attempting to drive around from a shared garage area at the rear of his home to collect his elderly mother at the front of the terrace as they were due to go for a birthday day out to Porthmadog and Caernarfon.

Miss Owen claims Leavers’ car obstructed that belonging to his neighbour and, giving evidence on Monday, Mr Hughes told jurors he tried the reason with the 71-year-old only to be assaulted.

Mr Hughes said that Leavers orginally went after him with an iron bar but that he was able to disarm the older man.

When Leavers attacked him with a shovel, Mr Hughes used the metal bar to block “four or five blows” before one struck his hand, almost severing the little finger and breaking his ring finger.

The complainant then alleged he attempted to flee in his car only for Leavers to attack his car with a saw, causing damage to the windscreen and driver’s side window.

Mr Hughes insisted he was polite to his neighbour and only approached him to ask: “Why are you playing funny buggers?

“I’m trying to take my mother out.”

However, Leavers denies he attacked Mr Hughes and says he was acting in self-defence when his nebighbour became aggressive.

Challenging Mr Hughes’ version of events, the defendant’s advocate Simon Mills put it to the complainant: “You appeared from behind the garage door holding the iron bar.

“You were the first person to pick up a weapon and you lunged towards him with the iron bar.”

Mr Hughes refuted that version of events and said he believed his life was at risk.

Leavers denies charges of wounding with intent, the alternative lesser charge of unlawful wounding and a charge of criminal damage.

Proceedings continue.