Head teacher who hit deputy with spanner speaks about love triangle attack
A head teacher who smashed his deputy over the head with a spanner in a fit of ‘overwhelming sexual jealousy’ has spoken about the attack for the first time, saying he is ‘deeply ashamed’.
Dr Anthony John Felton, 54, was jailed for more than two years after ambushing love rival Richard Pyke at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Comprehensive School in Aberavon, South Wales, on March 5 last year.
Dramatic CCTV of the moment he quietly slipped the heavy duty tool from inside his jacket and swung it down on Mr Pyke’s head from behind drew audible gasps from the public gallery at Swansea Crown Court.
The court heard married Felton secretly had a child with another member of staff and suspected she was also seeing Mr Pyke.
Following his release after serving four months in prison, Felton spoke about the incident that left his personal and profession al lives in tatters.
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Writing in Inside Time, a newspaper for current and former prisoners, he said: ‘I admit I was deeply ashamed of the offence that brought me to HMP Swansea.
‘I had been convicted of a Section 18 assault on a male colleague at work.
‘I regretted my actions immediately, and to this day I often dream about apologising to the victim.’
He added: ‘My case gained national coverage because I had been a headteacher in a South Wales comprehensive school.
‘At 54 years old, I suddenly found myself facing time inside. It was right that I received a custodial sentence, but that didn’t diminish the sheer terror and anxiety I felt.’
He goes on to describe fearing being beaten up or raped inside and sitting with a pen and paper on remand ‘endlessly’ calculating possible sentences.
Felton, who according to an annual report from the governing body was appointed headteacher in September 2023, pleaded guilty to attempted grievous bodily harm with intent on April 7.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Pyke told the court he would live with the attack for the rest of his life, saying it had taken ‘what made me, me’.
‘I trusted you completely,’ he said.
‘I had no idea that you held anything against me, I thought we were trusted work colleagues who over many years had built up a relationship of respect and understanding.
‘I admired you, I valued you.
‘You had my complete trust in every way and you used that to manoeuvre me into a position of utter vulnerability.
‘And then you attacked me from behind.’
He added: ‘The fear that you could attempt to do me such harm, smiling at me just seconds before, will always be with me.’
Judge Paul Thomas KC said in his sentencing remarks that an attack by a head on their deputy was ‘I suspect, entirely without precedent’ and was the result of ‘overwhelming sexual jealousy’.
He told Felton: ‘Ultimately, the trigger for your act of extreme violence was of your own doing, the overwhelming sexual jealousy arising from an adulterous affair and the uncontrollable rage it created in you.’
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