BARBER Mike Harford has spoken of his year of hell after one-time mentor and friend Gary Hatto was found guilty of assaulting him after a misunderstanding over a comb.

Mr Harford, 36, of Brickley Lane, Devizes, was left bleeding from his face and hand after fellow barber Hatto turned up on his doorstep at 9.30am on a Sunday morning last June.

On Monday Hatto was found guilty of assault by beating by magistrates in Chippenham and will be sentenced on June 15.

After the guilty verdict the court heard he had four previous convictions for violence and in 2010 had been sentenced to 12 weeks in prison.

Hatto pleaded not guilty to assaulting Mr Harford which meant the legal proceedings have taken nearly a year to come to a conclusion.

After the trial father of four Mr Harford said: “It has been a terrible year, real hell. All I want to do now is to get on with my life and put this behind me.

“For a long while after the attack I couldn’t sleep and my wife Amy was in a terrible state. It has also affected my young children. I haven’t been able to think of anything else.

“After giving evidence on Monday I couldn’t bear to stay in court. I went home and felt sick. When I heard the news it was such a relief. I knew that I had told the truth and been myself and that was all I could do.”

He said that on the Sunday morning of the assault he was at home looking after his three youngest children Monty, Dulcie and Digby who at the time were aged three, two and two months. His wife was away on a hen weekend.

He said: “All I kept thinking was that I didn’t want them to see or hear what was happening.

"Once he had gone a neighbour came over to look after the children but Dulcie was hysterical. It was terrible.”

The bad feeling between the two men started 11 years after Mr Harford joined Hatto’s chain of barber shops as an 18-year-old apprentice. Mr Harford rose through the ranks and they became good friends but then he decided to go it alone.

A legal agreement prevented him opening a shop within three miles of Devizes for a year but after that time he opened Mikey’s Barbershop in the Market Place.

The day before the attack Hatto sent one of his apprentices from his shop in The Brittox to borrow a specialist flat top comb. Mr Harford was at home with his children but his staff refused to lend the comb.

That night Mr Harford received a string of abusive and threatening texts.

He said: “It came as a total shock. The texts were really nasty but I had no idea he would turn up on the doorstep the next morning.

“All I wanted to do was to get him to leave. I was worried about the kids.”