Teacher Brutally Attacked with Wrench by School Headmaster: ‘My Only Hope Was to Yell for Help’

‘I cannot go to watch football with my son or sit in a cafe unless I have my back to the wall… I feel as if I have lost so much of myself’

An assistant headteacher lured to his office by his boss before being beaten over the head with a spanner has told of the harrowing impact of the incident on his life. Richard Pyke, 51, the assistant head at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Comprehensive in Aberavon, was “slyly” targeted by then headteacher Anthony John Felton, 54, in a vicious, calculated attack caught clearly on CCTV footage at the school.

During Felton’s sentencing on Friday afternoon, April 25, when the defendant was sentenced to two years and four months – half of which he will serve in custody, shocking footage of the incident received audible gasps from the public gallery when it was played at Swansea Crown Court.

The court heard how Mr Pyke had been discussing the contents of an everyday email from a parent with Felton when Felton discreetly pulled a large spanner, or wrench, from the pocket of his jacket. Footage then shows the ex-head swing the tool with force towards Mr Pyke’s head, with which he connects. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here

Mr Pyke quickly grabs his head in pain and falls to the floor, desperately kicking out at Felton in an attempt to stop him getting near him. The incident is only brought to an end by a member of staff who rushes into the office after hearing Mr Pyke’s screams for help.

The court heard Felton had grown convinced Mr Pyke had been having an affair with a love interest of his. Nothing was said in court to prove or disprove that assertion. What was clear though, was that Felton had managed to mislead his victim into thinking all was fine between them before delivering several blows to his head and body with the weapon.

Mr Pyke fortunately suffered relatively minor injuries, although a spokesperson for the prosecution said after the case he could have died. That was clear too in Mr Pyke’s powerful statement delivered in court on Friday.

He said: “I trusted you completely and had no idea you held anything against me. I admired you and valued you and thought we were working together to make our school the best it could be.

“You gave me no sense of your hidden anger or intention to do me such grave harm. That Wednesday you were so normal and so excited, I thought, to be looking at an anticipated email from a parent.

“You had my complete trust in every way and you used that to manoeuvre me into a position of utter vulnerability. With my back turned, you were not visibly angry or upset, and then attacked me with a metal wrench you had brought into my office.

“I am still in freefall from the trauma of this. I thought the lights were falling in on me when the first blows struck me on the back of the head. I remember asking you several times: ‘What are you doing John?’ Before realising my only hope was to yell for help.

“In the moments of debilitating flashbacks I still have, I sob the same question: how could you do something like that? In the immediate aftermath I was completely bewildered by what you’ve done. I know now that was the real you. I didn’t see that until it was almost too late which terrifies me still.

“My emotions swung wildly, I developed a stutter. The impact of your attack will be with me forever. I am constantly hyper aware of what is immediately behind me. I will live with that in some way for the rest of my life.

“I cannot at this point go to work. I will get there. I am determined. But the impact on my work life is and might always be profound.

“I cannot go to watch football with my son or sit in a cafe unless I have my back to the wall. I struggle to stand in a queue or to be on a busy pavement. I jump if I hear a noise behind me, even in the safety of my own home. I find it very difficult to sleep, I’m woken by terrifying dreams, I have no appetite.

“I feel as if I have lost so much of myself. The impact on family is equally profound. They have lost a part of the confident dad they knew. What if the news that went viral on social media within minutes that day was that their dad had died? That still haunts me.”

Judge Thomas said the incident had caused significant reputational damage to the school, especially in the context of schools across the UK struggling with issues of violence. Judge Thomas told Felton in the dock that on Monday the court would be sentencing a 14-year-old girl for attempting to kill teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin at a school in Ammanford last year. He said he had no doubt Felton would be “fully aware of” the case.

“Anyone arming themselves with a weapon with the intention to cause another serious injury is always a grave matter,” Judge Thomas said. “That a headmaster of a school should take a weapon to harm a deputy is, I expect, entirely without precedent.”