Father and son cleared of GBH after car hit diner

A father and son, who were charged with attacking a man with a machete and an iron bar after a car was driven into their family's restaurant and set alight, have been cleared of causing grievous bodily harm.

CCTV footage showed a Range Rover twice being reversed into Lou's Diner, in Newcastle, on 2 February 2025 before the driver ran away and Walter Patterson got out of the front passenger seat and set it on fire.

Prosecutors said John Henry Sayers senior, 62, and John Henry Sayers junior, 29, then targeted Patterson, but a jury at London's Old Bailey unanimously found them not guilty.

The pair, who embraced in the dock after the verdicts were read out, had claimed they acted in self-defence.

Jury members deliberated for just over three-and-a-half hours before reaching their verdicts.

At the opening of the trial in June, prosecutor Matthew Bean KC said police found the defendants holding their weapons after they chased Patterson.

The court heard Sayers senior struck him twice with a machete, while his son hit him 14 times with the iron bar.

Patterson suffered injuries including deep wounds to his left forearm and broken ribs.

Sayers senior refused to drop the machete during his arrest and was Tasered, the court heard.

An examination found Patterson's blood on the handle and blade of the machete as well as on the bar.

In a police interview, Sayers senior said he lived above Lou's Diner and his daughter and two sons were at home at the time of the attack, which caused the building to shake.

Jurors were told that, in the years leading up to the car ramming, the Sayers family had been subjected to various attacks.

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