Pudsey brother defends sibling for slashing him in the eye with broken bottle during loud-music dispute

Crack-smoking David Kilbride, 30, had been repeatedly asked to turn his music down at the family home in Moorland Grove on July 23 last year. But when his brother lost his temper and burst into his room to confront him, Kilbride lunged at him with the shard from a whisky bottle.

The man suffered a serious eye injury and required surgery, with doctors uncertain if his vision would improve.

But his brother told a hearing at Leeds Crown Court that the vision was returning, and that he accepted was partly to blame for the incident. Dean Kilbride said: “It has improved, I can actually see out of it, it has just taken time. It's not 100 per cent but it’s getting there. I could not see it all at first.

"I just want to forget about it. I did provoke him at the time. We were both drunk and both acting silly.”

Mitigating for David Kilbride, barrister Philip Morris said there had been a “brittle existence” between the siblings and the violent incident was the “end game as far as sibling rivalries are concerned”, hinting that they were reconciling. The brothers’ father, who was also present in court, told the judge he would also welcome David back into the family home if he was released.

Judge Simon Batiste gave Kilbride, with “great hesitation”, a two-year sentence, suspended for two years.

Kilbride, who has spent the last seven months on remand in HMP Leeds and wept throughout the hearing, was told by Judge Batiste: “The injury to his eye was extremely significant. He was initially found to be blind but it’s extremely fortunate that it appears he has made a significant recovery. This was the equivalent of using a knife on someone’s face.

"I recognise you have a number of difficulties and a number of mental health issues. You have spent months in custody and it’s been very difficult for you.”

He was given a nine-month drug rehabilitation order and a 120-day alcohol-abstinence requirement.