A DENTAL technician attacked his mother's lover as the pair left a charity event at a sports club, a court heard yesterday.

Harrogate magistrates were told how Geoff Clarke had been punched and kicked by 23-year-old Sean Easey, whose father had suffered a stroke.

Robert Moore, prosecuting, said Easey, of Westbourne Grove, Ripon, had been at a function at the city's bowling club which had also been attended by his mother and Mr Clarke, who had known Easey since he was born.

Easey had discovered that his mother and Mr Clarke had been having a relationship, even though it had been denied, and had followed Mr Clarke from the club on October 2.

He punched Mr Clarke in the head and was knocked to the floor.

Easey pleaded guilty to causing Mr Clarke actual bodily harm. His solicitor Stuart Berry said it had been ''insensitive'' of Mr Clarke to go to the bowling club when Easey knew of the relationship between him and his mother.

''To be sitting there next to the father and mother was a step too far by Mr Clarke,'' said Mr Berry.

Ordering Easey to do 160 hours of unpaid community work and pay his victim £300 as well as £50 costs, court chairman Michael Jefferies told him he had come close to going to prison.