Shocking moment headteacher bludgeons deputy around head in 'love triangle' gone wrong
25 April 2025, 15:25 | Updated: 26 April 2025, 09:45
Watch the moment a headteacher from a south Wales school attacked his deputy over a 'love triangle' Catholic secondary school in Neath Port Talbot.
Footage shows moment school headteacher attacks his deputy
Anthony John Felton, 54, who attacked his deputy with a wrench at school due to “overwhelming sexual jealousy” has been jailed for more than two years.
The headteacher armed himself with the tool and sought out his colleague, Richard Pyke, 51, attacking him from behind.
Now, extraordinary CCTV of the incident has been released after the full incident was caught on camera.
The video, shown in court, caused people in the public gallery to gasp as Felton landed a blow to the back of Mr Pyke's head.
Ieuan Rees, for the prosecution, said: "Richard Pyke had worked at the school for 18 years and is now an assistant headmaster. They had been friends and colleagues for many years.
"During the first few days of March this year Mr Felton's wife and several members of the staff at the school thought that he seemed distracted."
Mr Pyke fell to the ground and attempted to kick away his attacker, before colleagues at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Comprehensive School in Aberavon, South Wales, heard the disturbance and came to his aid.
Ieuan Rees, for the prosecution, said Felton believed Mr Pyke had slept with another teacher with whom he had recently been in a relationship.
“The evidence of his wife and the admissions he made to her suggested Mr Felton had been in a relationship with another member of staff and had recently discovered he was the father of her child,” he said.
“Furthermore, he believed that Mr Pyke had now begun his own relationship with that lady.”
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Following the incident on March 5 this year, Felton threw the wrench away and left the school in his car.
He then sent an email to all staff apologising “for the problems and distress his actions were likely to cause”.
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.
Judge Paul Thomas KC sentenced him at Swansea Crown Court on Friday to two years and four months in jail.
He was also given a restraining order.
Mr Thomas said an attack by a head on their deputy was “I suspect, entirely without precedent” and was the result of “overwhelming sexual jealousy”.
Following the incident, police said Mr Pyke had been discharged from hospital after suffering minor injuries.
Abul Hussain, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Anthony Felton struck a defenceless man repeatedly to the head with a metal weapon, demonstrating he had an intent to cause his victim really serious harm.
“The level of unprovoked violence, from a professional in the workplace, was shocking.
“Too often we see attacks of this nature result in life-changing injuries or fatal consequences, and thankfully, that was not the result in this case.”
He appeared at Swansea Crown Court on April 7 morning via video-link from prison, where he pleaded guilty to attempted grievous bodily harm with intent against Richard Pyke, 51.
Police were called to St Joseph's Roman Catholic Comprehensive School in Aberavon on the morning of Wednesday March 5, to reports of an assault.
Following the incident, Mr Pyke was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
According to an annual report from the school’s governing body, Mr Felton from Gorseinon, Swansea, was appointed headteacher in 2023.
John Hipkin KC, defending, told the court that Felton inflicted “a number of blows” to Mr Pyke during the attack, all of which had been caught on CCTV.
"The defendant is in the process of obtaining some references, which hasn't been an easy process from prison," he said.
"It is a serious matter, obviously, and it is whether the court requires further information about the defendant in the content of a pre-sentence report or not."
Judge Paul Thomas KC told the court that the offence was so serious that a prison sentence was “inevitable”.
Mr Hipkin said the case had a “unique background”, before adding: "On any view this is a spectacular fall from grace, to say the least."
No further details of the offence or circumstance surrounding the incident were heard.
"I don't think I will assist by a pre-sentence report,” the judge said at the time, “because I am sure a prison sentence is inevitable. It is simply a question of fixing the length".
Addressing the defendant, the judge added: "I think that will give you enough time to get any references or any other supporting documentation that you want to put before the court."
