Walker with dog off lead on private land hurt farm worker

Macxim Fallon, 21, was walking with his pit-bull terrier across the farm off Crankwood Road, Leigh at around noon on March 13 last year.

The confrontation began when a woman and then her husband asked why he was taking his dog over their farm land without a lead, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Edwin Potts, prosecuting, said: “He then responded, I’ll be back and there’ll be three of us.”

Mr Potts told the court that Fallon, of Riley Bank Road, Leigh, left but returned in an hour’s time with two other men and were acting in a threatening manner.

The knife was recovered by police (Image: Crown Prosecution Service)

A farmworker pushed him back and threw punches which did not hit the defendent.
In return Fallon pulled out a machete and slashed the man twice on the leg.

Fortunately for him, he was protected by heavy duty farming trousers but he still suffered knife wounds as a result.

The police were called and the victim was able to identify his attacker using a photograph taken from social media.

Officers arrived at Fallon’s home on April 2.

They allowed him to change his clothes in his bedroom while an officer waited outside and, Mr Potts said, Fallon took this opportunity to throw the machete out of his bedroom window in an effort to hide it from police.

He was arrested and gave no comment when interviewed by police but eventually pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Arron Payne, defending, said that Fallon deserved credit for having pleaded guilty and, adding this was ‘an explanation, not an excuse’ pointed out that the 21-year-old had himself been the ‘victim of a brutal attack’ a year earlier.

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

He told the court that Fallon, who has no previous convictions, had previously hoped to build a career as a boxer but that the attack he had suffered had injured his left hand making this difficult for him.

But since launching his attack on the farmworker, Fallon had been attending dog training sessions and trying to get his life back on track.

Mr Payne said: “This is a man who is doing well, he’s come full circle, he’s abandoned those bad habits that he had attained following the incident.”

But Judge Nicholas Clarke KC reminded the court of the serious impact Fallon’s crimes had had on his victims.

He said: “That’s the sort of thing one has seen all to often in big cities, one doesn’t expect to see that sort of thing in this sort of setting, in this area.”

Addressing the defendant, he added: “You had an hour to cool down, but you returned to the scene with that weapon hidden in your trousers.”

Judge Clarke said that the fact that Fallon had himself been the victim of a vicious attack in February 2021 made it ‘even more astonishing’ that he would inflict something like this on someone else.

He sentenced Fallon to six months in prison.