A GARAGE owner described being left bleeding and with a double fracture of an eye socket, after being set upon in a valleys rugby club bar.

Gareth Meredith alleges he was the victim of a “severe kicking” by Dean Yemm, his brother Jason Yemm, and their father Roderick Yemm, at Oakdale RFC on November 26 last year.

He said he went there during a night out with partner Paula Yemm - former wife of Dean Yemm - to pick up her and Dean’s daughter Shannon, who was upset after an “altercation” involving her and her father, uncle and grandfather.

Mr Meredith told Newport Crown Court that after an exchange of insults, Dean, Jason and Roderick Yemm brought him to the floor, and punched and kicked him. He lost consciousness there, and outside before an ambulance arrived.

Dean Yemm, 45, of Brynhoward Terrace, Oakdale, Jason Yemm, 42, of Cherry Grove, Croespenmaen, and Roderick Yemm, 67, of Plynlimon Avenue, Croespenmaen, pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Dean and Paula Yemm are the parents of Cerys Yemm, who was murdered at an Argoed hotel in 2014 by Matthew Williams.

Mr Meredith said he went with Mrs Yemm to the club in a taxi to fetch Shannon, and gave her money so she and a friend could go into Blackwood.

He said the attack began seconds after he entered the bar, after he returned a jibe. He rejected a suggestion by Hilary Roberts, defence counsel for Jason Yemm, that he had drunk enough to have been “unstable and angry”, and had confronted Roderick Yemm.

The court was told Mr Meredith has several convictions for violent offences, including GBH, albeit the last was in 1990.

He told Steve Thomas, defence counsel for Roderick Yemm, that he had not been aggressive to his client because “I’ve got respect for older people and I don’t like confrontation.”

Paula Yemm insisted she was telling “nothing but the truth” in describing being in the bar talking to her daughter when, on hearing shouting, she turned to see Mr Meredith being repeatedly punched and kicked by her ex-husband, his brother, his father, and another unidentified man.

She rejected Mr Roberts’ suggestion that she had come to court “to lie about them, about something they did not do.”

Proceeding.