Yorkshire farmer stabbed twice in field by pensioner angry after he ran a cat over with his tractor

Trevor Coates, then 66, was working on his tractor in the rented arable field in Wigginton last July when he was approached by local resident Stephen Harpin, 71.

Mr Harpin, whose garden on Walmer Carr backed onto the field, claimed that Mr Coates had run over a popular neighbourhood cat called Karl in the vehicle. He accused the Haxby farmer of 'speeding' in the tractor and of being a 'cat murderer'.

At this point, the cat was still alive and receiving treatment at a veterinary surgery, but was later put to sleep.

Two days later, Mr Harpin returned to the field armed with a kitchen knife and a pair of garden shears and attacked Mr Coates, who suffered stab wounds to his chest and arm.

The stunned farmer managed to use his cardigan as a tourniquet and was given first aid by neighbours, one of whom opened his front door to find the victim with his left bicep muscle hanging out.

He was rushed to the major trauma unit at Leeds General Infirmary and given lifesaving surgery.

Harpin, who was suffering from chronic depression at the time, has now been jailed for four and a half years at York Crown Court, having earlier pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.

The court was told that Harpin, who had no previous convictions, had run up credit card debts of £50,000 and had had to sell his collection of first edition books to repay them.

Mr Coates accepted that he may have accidentally injured the cat in the first confrontation between the two men and offered to apologise to its owner. Harpin later sent text messages to a friend admitting that he had told Mr Coates the cat was dead before it had actually passed away.

Mr Coates returned to the field in his tractor on July 18 and had left the cab to check the rotar blades when the attack happened. Harpin messaged the same friend to tell him he had injured Mr Coates - writing "I've knifed the cat murderer. It is one of the better things I have done in my life. I must be content with what I did."

He was waiting for police when they arrived at the scene and made no attempt to deny the offence when arrested. However, he later claimed in an interview that he was acting in self-defence and that the farmer had approached him while he was trimming grass on his property boundary and told him he had a claw hammer in the cab of the tractor.

In his victim impact statement, Mr Coates said he had had to move in with his sister for care and sold a planned retirement property to pay farm expenses while he was unable to work. He said he would be 'looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life' and had gone from a quiet man with no enemies to one who has become anxious about being around people. He remains in constant pain and will never fully recover from his injuries.

Harpin's lawyer said his client was 'ashamed' of his behaviour and was the sole carer for his wife, who has serious health issues. He added that the situation was in part caused by Harpin being unable to consult a GP face to face about his mental deterioration during lockdowns. He claimed the five-inch knife had been initially taken outside for Harpin to cut the roots of weeds with.

Passing sentence, Recorder of York Sean Morris said: "This was a cat you had grown fond of, and you found it crawling under your fence crippled by a tractor. This flicked a switch in your head. You had been bottling things up and making suicide attempts. Yet you are a highly intelligent man and this was a wicked offence. The consequences could have been a lot worse."

An indefinite restraining order preventing Harpin from being within 50 metres of Mr Coates was also granted.