An enraged motorist who attacked an elderly couple in Winchester has been jailed for four and half years.

Jo Conroy-Helstrip battered John and Anne Arthur after their car had briefly blocked the road late in June 2023.

Conroy-Helstrip, of Brocade Road, Andover, repeatedly punched the couple, both then aged 65, outside their home in Western Road, Fulfood, a court heard.

Sentencing Judge Paul Dugdale said: "We have no idea why you behaved in that way, in this short moment of extreme violence. A redness descended upon you and you knocked Mr Arthur to the ground, punching him twice in the head and then repeatedly whilst he was laying unconscious.

"Then, as his wife, he believed him to be dead, came to his aid and you punched her, too, breaking her nose and knocking her to the ground.  

"Why a 23-year-old of good character, whilst in a car with a 12-month-old daughter and five-month pregnant wife would do this, we will never know. It is a tragic event. Tragic for you and tragic for the Arthurs."

The trial at Winchester Crown Court heard that John and Anne Arthur, were returning home from music practice when Conroy-Helstrip, now 25, entered the road in his car with his girlfriend, Samantha Gomez.

Mr Arthur had blocked the road for a short time to unload his and his wife's musical instruments and Mr Conroy-Helstrip became enraged at the time he had to wait. After beeping twice and then passing Mr Arthur with an additional beep of the horn, he waited at the end of the road at the junction leading onto Stockbridge Road.

Mr Arthur went to speak to the defendant to ask why he was beeping and it was then that Conroy Helstrip got out of his car and assaulted Mr Arthur and his wife, Anne.

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Conroy-Helstrip was described as getting calmly back into his car and driving away. In this time, local neighbours treated Mr and Mrs Arthur's head wounds and called for an ambulance.

A neighbour, Amanda Porter, who helped treat Mr Arthur, said: "I have never heard a man sound so terrified. He kept saying 'My head, my head. Where's my wife? Is she okay? I was just asking him why he was beeping!'".

Another neighbour, Alex Jacobs, said: "I heard a blood-curdling scream coming from down the road. I could see a female laying on the floor, in great pain."

The judge sentenced Conroy-Helstrip to four and a half years on two counts of wounding with intent.

The trial lasted a week and the jury spent a day deliberating and they reached a majority verdict of 10-2 on the attack on Mr Arthur, but a unanimous verdict on the assault on Mrs Arthur. 

As the verdicts were announced, Conroy-Helstrip, smartly dressed in a suit, shook his head. 

In the victim impact statements, Mrs Arthur said: "It was the first time that I have ever been hit, the first time I have been taken to hospital in an ambulance, and stayed overnight and it was the first time seeing an attack. I thought my husband was going to die. I still have so many questions, how could you continue to punch someone as they lie unconscious?"

Mr Arthur said: "I wonder what your last 15 months were like, a seconds washing the blood from your hands, some inconvenient times having to come to court. Mine have been hell. The panic that I felt that night as I thought I was having a stroke, having to rush Anne to the hospital several days after as her nose wouldn't stop bleeding. The emotional feelings of the attack, I am still anxious of strangers on the street. But the one positive was that your own horrible act, showed us so many positive acts from neighbours, friends and family."