A debt-ridden company boss – who ran a family firm with his brother – launched a savage hammer attack on his sibling in a bloody bid to seize control of the business, a court heard.
Company Director Simon Rodliffe, 48, of Brown’s End Road, Broxted, Dunmow, Essex ran up debts while cheating on his wife with an Italian Internet lover and begged his father and brother for money to bale him out.
“If his brother was gravely injured in a random attack it would fall to Simon to take over the reigns of the company and sort out his personal finances from the company coffers,” prosecutor Mr. Richard Kelly told the Chelmsford Crown Court jury.
Simon Rodliffe pleads not guilty to wounding Guy Rodliffe, 44, with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm, on June 17 last year, at the offices of Home & Office Fire Extinguishers Ltd., Saffron Business Centre, Elizabeth Close, Saffron Walden.
Guy had criticized his brother – who had £28,000 credit card debts – for living an “extravagant” lifestyle, involving multiple Italy trips, while the firm, founded by the brothers’ parents, struggled to pay it’s tax bill.
Their father, John, never received proof Simon’s request for £3,000 was for a legitimate legal bill and Guy snubbed his brother’s £5,000 wages advance demand a few days before the alleged attack.
Simon appeared unexpectedly at the firm’s HQ, after ‘borrowing’ £100 petty cash, and followed his unsuspecting brother into an office with a hammer concealed in a plastic bag, explained Mr. Kelly.
“He felt an extremely heavy blow to the right side and back of his head and another blow to the top of his head,” said the lawyer, telling the jury the assault bore all the hallmarks of a pre-planned attack.
Simon screamed: “You bastard,” and a bloody Guy began wrestling with his brother. “Guy grabbed Simon telling him to stop or he was going to kill him. The blows caused his head to bleed profusely.”
Guy struggled clear and raised the alarm at a nearby Homebase, where his brother is said to have bought the hammer a couple of days earlier.
Simon dialed 999 and told police he was attacked by his brother with the hammer and struck two blows in self-defence after wrestling the weapon from him.
The court was told the brothers had enjoyed a good relationship in running the firm for seventeen years, but things turned sour when Simon began disappearing on mystery weekend trips.
“He was taking more of a back step in the business and did not want to be there or answer the phone,” Guy told the jury. “He was disappearing at the weekend and admitted he met a woman on the Internet who lived in Italy.”
Simon caused ill-feeling by continuing to draw his full salary – which he complained didn’t cover his mortgage – despite being absent for huge chunks of time, forcing the firm to pay a manager £36,000 to cover his work.
Guy refused his brother’s advance request, claiming the firm were “in the last chance saloon,” after extending their bank overdraft by £30,000 with Guy himself taking out a £25,000 personal loan to keep the business afloat.
By now Simon was in the middle of a bitter divorce and Guy feared he was suicidal after being refused more money.
After the attack police later found a spare pair of jeans and fresh T-shirt in Simon’s car and seized a bloodstained jumper and black coat.
Forensics prove Simon was the assailant, said Mr. Kelly. “This was a planned attack on his brother with a hammer wrapped in a plastic bag and wearing clothes designed not to link him to the crime.”
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