A MAN has been jailed for seven years after he was convicted of luring an innocent man to a house in Wrexham before he attacked him with a dumbbell – fracturing his skull.

Carl Nathan Edwards, 26, who regularly works out in the gym, was told by a judge he could easily have killed his victim David Jones and be facing a murder charge.

Judge Niclas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, said: “You lured your victim by disguised text messages to your partner’s home, pretending it was her who wanted to see him.

“This was a violent attack. You knocked him to the floor, you kicked him on the floor and when he was lying helpless, you struck him to the head with a iron bar with such force that you caused a fractured skull.”

Judge Parry said he took into account Edwards’ good character, there was only one blow, and it would be his first prison sentence.

During the trial it was said Edwards became jealous after finding the telephone numbers of two men on her mobile phone.

He sent victim David Jones text messages pretending to be from his girlfriend, offering sex.

The texts said she could not forget a kiss they previously had, invited him around to the house for sex, and told him to come alone in a taxi.

Mr Jones told the jury he was surprised to receive the text messages because he knew the young woman but they had never been in a relationship. They had kissed once in the past but that was it.

He texted back asking about her boyfriend, but Edwards replied telling him “he does not need to know”.

Edwards was alleged to have hidden in a bush until Mr Jones arrived and knocked at her door. He then confronted him asking “which one are you?” before striking him across the head with a metal bar.

Mr Jones said he just froze and then dived between his attacker’s legs in a big to get away. He got into the street but was struck with the bar and kicked as he tried to protect himself. The next thing he knew he was waking up in a police car as officers were taking him home.

The jury heard Edwards had twice found the name Mike on his girlfriend’s phone. Mr Jones said she did not know his name and had his number under the name Mike.

Edwards, of Vale View in Llay, denied a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent in May of last year, but he was unanimously convicted by the jury.

In evidence, Edwards said he found a stranger at his girlfriend’s door, told him to leave, but claimed Mr Jones swung a punch at him.

They exchanged blows, Edwards said he acted in self-defence, and the fractured skull must have occurred when Mr Jones fell and struck his head on the gate, the gate post or the wall.

They continued fighting, he claimed, they fell through his girlfriend’s front door and continued to fight inside.

David Potter, defending, said Edwards denied all the allegations. It was his case that he had not seen any text messages on his girlfriend’s phone until after the incident.

But the jury heard how the day after the attack, Edwards went to the home of a friend and confessed what he had done.

The jury also heard that Mr Jones, in a dazed state on the night, told police nothing had happened and insisted on being taken home.

He had not appreciated he had a fractured skull. The following morning he went to Wrexham Maelor Hospital and waited for two hours.

The jury heard he returned home after he said staff had not realised how badly injured he was and told him there would be another four hour wait.

The following day police took him back, staff realised how serious it was and he was transferred to Walton Hospital in Liverpool where he underwent emergency surgery. The skull was fractured and he needed 20 staples to repair the surgical wound to the side of his head.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Jones said the attack had changed him from a friendly, outgoing person to an introvert who was nervous.

He had trouble sleeping, he had an increasing number of fits and now suffered from depression.