A FATHER who smashed a vase over the head of a Brighouse man maintains he was defending his three-year-old son.
Aaron Eccleston, from Essex, denies assaulting father-of-two Sean Ellis on Smith House Avenue, Brighouse.
Mr Ellis has been left brain damaged after the incident outside Eccleston’s girlfriend’s house on August 15 last year.
Yesterday Eccleston, 24, appeared at Bradford Crown Court to give evidence in his defence. He has pleaded not guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent.
The defendant told the court Mr Ellis had run up to the garden of his girlfriend’s house where he was playing football with his son Kenzie.
He said Mr Ellis was shouting racial abuse at him and said he was going to kill him.
Eccleston, who is mixed-race, said about two months prior to the incident he was walking up to the shops when Mr Ellis had insulted him.
Eccleston, known locally as Bubble, said: “He said he didn’t like my eyes but I just left the estate.
“I just said to him ‘Don’t look at me if you don’t like me’.”
In a previous hearing Eccleston said he had hit Mr Ellis with the ceramic vase in self defence after Mr Ellis had knocked down the fence and thrown it at him.
The case continues.
