A Weston-super-Mare pensioner says he has been ‘badly affected’ after having his pelvis broken and head stamped on by a drunken man whose grass he had just cut for free.

Brian Popel was beaten by 26-year-old Dawid Biernat after he returned from a drinking session to find Mr Popel tending to his garden in Clifton Road.

The 77-year-old suffered a broken pelvis, and spent two weeks in hospital after being pushed to the ground and attacked by Biernat.

Biernat pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and was jailed for two years and eight months at Bristol Crown Court on May 25, and was subsequently served a deportation order.

Mr Popel was cutting the grass at Biernat’s home as a favour for the landlord – something he had done for years.

But when Biernat returned home in an ambulance after a drinking session, he saw Mr Popel in his garden and unleashed a ‘nasty’ attack on the pensioner – stamping on his head and kicking him several times.

Mr Popel said: “I’d virtually finished cutting the lawn and doing a bit of weeding. He was stood on the end of the ambulance and told the paramedics he didn’t want their help.

“He jumped down and passed me without taking any notice of me. He went inside and started singing at the top of his voice, so I knew he’d been drinking.

“The biggest mistake I’ve made in my life was going in the back garden to gather my tools to come home.

“He came storming out shouting ‘who are you?’

“He pushed me and I went flying right onto my face. He started kicking me and stamping on me.

“All I said to him was ‘hello, I’ve come to do a bit of gardening’. I was doing him a favour.”

Mr Popel said he now feels he cannot go back to do more gardening, and added: “I would be looking over my shoulder all the time and you can’t work like that. You can’t live like that.

“It affected me very badly. It was quite a nasty attack.”

Nicholas Fridd, mitigating, told the court the incident was out of character and Biernat was sorry.

Biernat had a criminal record in his native Poland for theft, criminal damage and drugs offences, and Mr Popel questioned why he was allowed to enter the UK, adding he was glad to see his attacker deported.

He added: “As long as he never comes back, because it could happen to another person.”