Father and son cleared of machete and iron bar attack

A father and son have been cleared of attacking a rival with a machete and iron bar after their family restaurant was rammed by a Range Rover and set alight.

John Henry Sayers snr, 62, and John Henry Sayers jnr, 29, cornered Walter Patterson, 38, after the luxury vehicle smashed into ‘Lou’s Diner’ below their Newcastle home in a series of coordinated attacks.

Patterson set the car ablaze and tried to leg it, but gruesome video footage shows the Sayers’ rushing the firestarter with their weapons to leave him hospitalised.

The Sayers, of Fossway, Newcastle, denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place on 2 February last year.

They did not give evidence in the trial but their barristers argued they acted in self-defence.

The pair smiled and hugged eachother in the dock as they were cleared on all charges.

Outside court Sayers jnr hugged his lawyers who told him. ‘Well done, you’ve had to be brave. I’m thrilled for you.’

Asked if he would have a glass of champagne to celebrate, Sayers jnr said: ‘I’ll have a bottle.’

Sayers snr, a former paratrooper, grew up in Newcastle’s tough West End and was first convicted and jailed for armed robbery for 15 years in 1990 after stealing £350,000 in wages from a security firm in Gateshead.

He was cleared in 2002 of masterminding the gangland murder of Freddie Knights, who was shot in the head on his mum’s doorstep in Longbenton as he called to collect birthday presents for his two children.

In 2009, the Tyneside ‘hardman’ was arrested and charged with plotting to nobble the jury in that murder trial at Leeds Crown Court after a juror received a threatening phone call the night before Sayers snr was acquitted.

But the jury nobbling case collapsed after key information was not disclosed to the offence by bungling prosecutors.

In 2008, Sayers snr was jailed for four years over a £350,000 tax fiddle after failing to declare secret earnings from his empire of up to 30 pubs which meant he swerved VAT and business rates.

Five years later he was charged with rape – an allegation he denied and called a ‘character assasination’.

The case was dropped due to a lack of evidence after Sayers snr spent eight weeks on remand.

In 2018 Sayers snr was cleared again of conspiracy to murder over a drive-by shooting outside the Tup Tup Palace nightclub in Newcastle in 2015.

But he was jailed for three-and-half years for perverting the course of justice after getting a man he met in prison to take the wrap for the shooting.

After Sayers snr’s release in April 2019, it was said that attacks on the Sayers’ family homes and businesses began.

During the latest trial, jurors were shown CCTV footage of the Range Rover reversing twice into the diner before driver Grant Curly fled the scene.

Sayers Snr then appeared with a machete and struck Patterson twice, while Sayers Jnr repeatedly hit him with a long metal pole.

Patterson was later convicted of arson for his role in ‘deliberately targeting’ the Sayers family that evening at around 7:30pm.

After the initial blows against Patterson, footage showed Sayers snr putting the car into gear to send it across the road into a fence.

As Patterson scrambled across the floor and got back to his feet he was chased off by the Sayers.

Prosecutor Matthew Bean KC said: ‘Patterson suffered a series of serious injuries, including wounds to his left forearm that were so deep they damaged the tendons and fractures to two bones in the left forearm and to his ribs.’

The trial heard there were ‘various attacks’ on the Sayers family for ‘many years’ which ‘appeared to be co-ordinated’ and targeted.

Sayers snr refused to provide CCTV for one incident, while writing in an officer’s notebook that the force is ‘corrupt and colluding and protecting their informers who are to blame’.

He has repeatedly accused Northumbria Police of ‘fit ups’ over the years – an allegation denied by the force.

Mr Bean said neither Sayers ‘appeared to be particularly intimidated’ and that they shared photos of a white Mercedes outside ‘The County’ pub with relative Thomas Sayers in the driver’s seat.

On February 2, Sayers Snr sent a voicemail to another family member saying: ‘You should do what yous done with Tommy’s car yesterday. Take your car, take it to The County, outside… take the pictures and say still not blown up.’

The message appeared to be an instruction from Sayers Snr to goad those attacking his properties.

Later that evening his restaurant ‘Lou’s Diner’ came under attack.

When police arrived at the scene, father and son were still armed and Sayers snr told officers ‘get him f–king healthcare’.

Sayers snr was tasered when he refused to drop the machete and he was arrested along with his son.

Patterson was found nearby in a takeaway with cuts so deep to his forearms they damaged his tendons, and blunt force impacts that broke his ribs and spleen.

Blood found on the machete and metal pole matched Patterson’s DNA profile.

Judge Philip Katz KC said Sayers snr should now be released from custody as he is not facing any other charges.