An abusive remark led to a man “seeing red” and coming to blows with his neighbour, a court was told.

Hilgay resident Jonathan Cooper was enraged by Mark Diamond’s comment to Cooper’s adult daughter and grabbed a staircase spindle before going to confront him.

Lynn Magistrates’ Court heard they swapped punches and each of them was hit with the spindle as they fought in front of fellow residents in Foresters Avenue.

Prosecutor Charles Corbett said there were a number of witnesses and others tried to get involved.

“Punches were being thrown and they were grappling with each other,” he added.

Cooper, 47, who had no previous convictions, had to go to hospital for treatment to a head wound and bruising.

Mr Corbett said there were no claims for compensation as “both sides were as bad as each other”.

Cooper pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon and both defendants admitted using threatening behaviour on the evening of August 7, 2020.

Alison Muir, mitigating for Cooper, said his daughter had received some abuse from Diamond as she got in her car to go to work and had rung her parents moments later.

Miss Muir said it wasn’t an isolated incident and there had been bad blood between the two for some time.

This time he had “seen red” and took the spindle round to “have it out” with Diamond.

“He has never done anything like that before. Over the years he feels he’s bitten his tongue, although it doesn’t excuse what he did,” Miss Muir added.

Ruth Johnson, mitigating for Diamond, 47, said he saw Cooper on his drive with a piece of wood and heard him swear as he shouted “I’m going to kill you”.

She said Cooper banged the wood into the ground. It split in two so he had a piece in each hand.

Miss Johnson said her client was struck in the shoulder by one piece before throwing a punch himself. She said Cooper had fallen to the floor at one point which may have accounted for some of his injuries.

“Mr Diamond says ‘I shouldn’t have left my house, I should have just called the police,’” Miss Johnson added.

The court was told there was a “truce” between the two now and they keep out of each other’s way.

Each defendant was fined £370 and ordered to pay £85 costs and £37 victim surcharge. There was no separate penalty for Cooper for the offensive weapon matter.