A carpenter has avoided jail after fracturing a retired magistrate’s eye socket with a piece of wood amid a neighbourhood feud in a picturesque village. Christopher Wellman, 36, was doing work at his mother-in-law's house in Walditch, near Bridport in Dorset, when neighbour Colin Prior approached to complain about the noise. Wellman ignored him, and Mr Prior, 76, put his foot on the tradesman’s electric saw. The carpenter reacted by taking a “long back swing” with a 3x4 piece of wood, hitting the pensioner on the side of the head. The force of the blow fractured Mr Prior's cheekbone and eye socket and split his ear “essentially in half”, while his wife, 73-year-old Helen, watched in horror. Mr Prior, a retired BT engineer, driving examiner and former magistrate, said that both he and Helen were psychologically impacted by the horrifying assault “on their doorstep”. Christopher Wellman leaving Bournemouth Crown Court (BNPS) He was disappointed that Wellman did not receive a prison sentence, he said.…