A JEALOUS Stratford man who launched a premeditated ambush on one of his wife’s work colleagues who had had an affair with her, breaking his jaw, has been jailed.
Leonard Agafitei had pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to inflicting grievous bodily harm on his victim with intent to cause him serious injury.
But he later pleaded guilty to an alternative offence of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm, which was accepted by the prosecution.
The 39-year-old, of Alcester Road, Stratford, was jailed for two years and three months after the judge rejected an argument that the sentence could be suspended.
Prosecutor Omar Majid said the victim worked at a care home in Coventry, where Agafitei’s wife also worked, and at 9.15pm on November 4 last year he went outside to take the bins out.
But as he turned to go back inside, he was approached by Agafitei who asked if he was John, and was then attacked.
Two colleagues who found him in a pool of his blood.”
Mr Majid said the motive for the attack was an affair Agafitei’s wife had had with John, which had in fact ended several months earlier, and which Agafitei had been aware of since July.
As a result of the attack, the victim had ‘significant facial injuries,’ including a broken jaw which had to be repaired by a metal plate being inserted under surgery, a displaced orbital floor fracture, a cut lip and a heavily-bruised eye.
When the police later turned up at Agafitei’s home to arrest him, they found bloodied clothing in the washing machine, which had been turned on.
When he was questioned, Agafitei, who had no previous convictions, gave mostly ‘no comment’ replies, but said although he had been to the care home during the afternoon, he had then left and had not returned.
Seamran Sidhu, defending, said it had been ‘a one-off offence in unique circumstances,’ and submitted that Agafitei, who was reconciled with his wife, could be given a suspended sentence.
But jailing Agafitei, Judge Barry Berlin told him: “Your wife had been in a relationship with (the victim). In my judgement, you set out at some point to seek revenge and to hurt him.
“You viciously attacked him in a sustained attack, breaking his jaw, kicking him when he was unconscious on the ground. I have seen his face, it is covered in blood.
“This happened at his place of work, and it was a premeditated ambush.”
