A HOSTEL resident has escaped punishment for attacking a York couple with a pickaxe handle in a dispute over loud music.

Recorder Graham Robinson also decided that James Ernest Race, 53, should not pay compensation to Michael and Rosemary Bailey for the injuries they suffered at the Howe Hill Hostel for the homeless on June 9.

He said at York Crown Court that any payment would lead to their benefits being stopped and they would not be better off.

Race, 53, who later moved to Scarcroft Road, York, pleaded guilty to two offences of causing actual bodily harm.

Prosecution barrister Suzanne Smales said Race "liked to see to the smooth running" of the hostel in Acomb Road, Acomb.

After fellow residents Michael and Rosemary Bailey played their stereo and television loudly at night he confronted them and warned them that he would unplug their equipment if they persisted. Mrs Bailey, 28, scratched Race's face.

Later, when he was in his room and the Baileys were banging on his door, he took a pickaxe handle left by a previous resident, opened the door and started lashing out with it. Mr Bailey, 29, suffered a cut to his head that needed at least 25 stitches and Mrs Bailey had bruises and cuts to her arm.

The Recorder gave Race a 12-month conditional discharge and made him pay £300 prosecution costs.

He said it was an unusual set of circumstances and Race would have found the hostel an "alien" environment.

He was not a dangerous man, had a "myriad of health problems" which meant he could not do community punishment, and did not need help from probation officers.

Updated: 09:47 Saturday, October 11, 2003