Sickening video footage captured a four-strong gang attacking two different bin crews with a hatchet, axe and sledgehammer after a roadside row spiralled into violence.
The men have between them admitted a variety of offences including assault and criminal damage.
The violence
Footage shows the driver of a black Vauxhall Corsa leaping from his vehicle and squaring up to the crew of a Stoke-on-Trent City Council bin wagon on Fairhaven Grove, Birches Head.
After the altercation – in which he reaches into the cab raining blows – the driver of the vehicle then pulls a lollipop man’s school crossing patrol sign from his boot and begins to swing at the lorry as it makes its escape.
Then later in the day, the driver of the car and three other men appear on Birches Head Road, where a different bin wagon is on its rounds.
They leap from the car and armed with what appear to be a hatchet, axe, sledgehammer and baton and run towards the council vehicle, whose crew appear oblivious to what is going on.
The vehicle is quickly set upon, and one member of the bin crew is struck across the body with a baton.
As one member of the four-strong gang smashes the windows of the cab, another crew member can be seen being attacked as he falls over a wheelie bin.
The driver of the first bin lorry was punched three times through a window during the attack, and needed hospital treatment for head, face and foot injuries.
Three bin men were injured in the second attack, with one of them needing hospital treatment for facial, head and leg injuries.
Arrest and charges
Police later located the Vauxhall Corsa in Kidsgrove and a sledgehammer was found inside. One of the gang was arrested in Suffolk three days after the attack.
Joe Cordon, aged 27, of Tellwright Street, Burslem, was arrested in Suffolk and later admitted charges of wounding with intent, two counts of assault, two counts of criminal damage, driving a motor vehicle otherwise in accordance with a licence, and driving without insurance.
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Kyle Hilditch, aged 18, of Holbeach Avenue, Bucknall, has admitted two counts of wounding with intent, two counts of conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, possessing an offensive weapon in a public place, and criminal damage.
Kyle Worthington, aged 19, of Abbey Road, Abbey Hulton, has admitted conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
Jack Spackman, aged 24, of Beverley Drive, Bentilee, has admitted two counts of conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, possessing an offensive weapon in a public place, and criminal damage.
The men are all due to be sentenced on September 13 at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.
