A law professor has been cleared of wounding a farmer who was struck with an iron wrench.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court took less than an hour-and-a-half to find 41-year-old Ian Campbell not guilty of the offence.

Robert Thompson needed 15 stitches in two head wounds after Mr Campbell, who had been walking his dog, hit him with the bar, the court was told during the three day trial.

But the jury accepted Mr Campbell's account that he was only acting in self-defence after the tool was used to lash out at a map which he was carrying.

Immediately after his acquittal, Mr Campbell would only say: "I don't want to comment on the verdict because the publicity the case has had already had caused problems for my department."

Mr Thompson refused to comment after the hearing.

The court had heard how Mr Thompson saw sheep running up a hill in a field at his farm in Cullingworth, in May, last year, and approached Campbell in his tractor.

He said he had taken the iron wrench with him after the two men had confronted each other ten minutes earlier because Campbell's dog had had a go at his dog. He asked Mr Campbell what he was doing. But when he turned away the next thing he could remember was being back in the tractor with blood on his face and a cut head, added Mr Thompson.

He was found to be in a dazed state when a police officer came to his home at Manor Farm, Station Road, Cullingworth. He was treated in the Bradford Royal Infirmary for the cuts to his head and was kept in for observation overnight.

Mr Campbell, of North View Terrace, East Morton, had denied a charge of unlawfully wounding Mr Thompson, who was said to have a reputation for having a "fiery temper" when it came to walkers on his property.

Mr Campbell, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration, had told the jury that he first encountered Mr Thompson while out walking his one-year-old border collie dog. He said he was checking his map before walking down a pathway when the farmer told him that there was no path there.

He claimed Mr Thompson began ranting in a ''most uncivil tone'', telling him what he had on the map was "fraudulent". Mr Campbell said he would take it up with the council and walked down another route.

As he continued walking, Mr Thompson drove up to him on his tractor and Mr Campbell alleged that he walked towards waving an iron bar and using filthy language.

He said that he then had one of his fingers injured as he was showing a right-of-way on the map, which Mr Thompson had allegedly struck with the bar.

Mr Campbell told the jury that he had been frightened and grabbed the bar with which he had hit Mr Thompson twice on the head while punches were being thrown at him.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.