A wine estate worker who was catapulted off the back of a tractor has sued his English vineyard bosses after claiming he can no longer use a knife and fork.

Guy Hollingworth, 53, plunged to the ground while helping net vines at the Rathfinny Wine Estate near Alfriston, East Sussex, in September 2022.

He had been standing on a pallet on the back forks of the vehicle before it gave way - causing him to hit his head and back on a metal part of the vineyard apparatus.

Mr Hollingworth, an extreme sports enthusiast, says he was left with life-changing injuries - including PTSD and chronic pain disorder.

He also claims he is now unable to walk further than 50m and cannot use his left hand to hold a fork or knife.

The sky-diving fanatic is suing his former bosses, Rathfinny Wine Estate Ltd, for more than £200,000 at the High Court.

Rathfinny is a family-run vineyard which was established in 2010 by former hedge fund manager Mark Driver and his wife, Sarah.

It prides itself on producing English sparkling wines from its site near the picturesque village in the South Downs.

The estate's 2018 Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine won a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge 2023 and its products are now served in restaurants and hotels all over the world.

Bosses at the company are fighting Mr Hollingworth's claim, suggesting he was to blame for his own accident due to setting the tractor forks too low and failing to properly hold on.

According to documents filed at the High Court, Mr Hollingworth, of Seaford, East Sussex, was working with a colleague netting the vines at the estate when he was hurt.

After reaching the bottom of a hill, his colleague began to accelerate the tractor back towards his waiting car, with Mr Hollingworth standing on the unsecured pallet on the forks, he claims.

His barrister, Laura Begley, says he then found himself on the ground and in pain, with his colleague standing above and apologising.

Mr Hollingworth has only a 'patchy' memory of the next two weeks and now suffers with a consequent neurological disorder, his barrister has said.

He claims he has left-sided weakness, with sensory changes to his shoulder, back and limb, leaving his left hand 'not useful for holding a knife and fork'.

And he says he is unable to walk further than 50m, but with frequent stops, needs a cane and was all but housebound until he obtained a motor scooter to get out.

He is also 'unable to lift his right arm above his shoulder, suffers frequent falls and experiences headaches, tinnitus and blurry vision, as well as PTSD and depression'.

'Prior to the index accident, the claimant was very much an outdoors person,' Ms Begley said.

She added: 'He grew up in the valley where he worked and enjoyed his work and walking locally and on the South Downs.

'He was a scuba diver and volunteered with a local organisation helping to rescue entangled marine life.

'He snowboarded and had done a tandem sky dive, and had bought the equipment to learn to do this on his own account.

'He was physically adventurous.'

Mr Hollingworth is suing the vineyard, alleging negligence in failing to ensure the pallet was secured and also accusing the driver, Ian Bray, of driving too fast for the terrain.

But although the company has admitted primary liability for the accident, it is fighting the claim on the basis Mr Hollingworth was himself negligent.

The company's barrister, Lee Evans, has argued he had not been instructed to carry out his task in the manner he did and had 'chosen' to stand on the pallet.

'At no stage prior to the pleaded accident did the claimant express any concerns about the task or him standing on the pallet,' he added in the company's defence.

'It is denied that Mr Bray drove the tractor at an unsafe and/or unsuitable speed. At all material times, Mr Bray was driving the tractor at a safe and suitable speed.

'At the time the claimant fell from the pallet, Mr Bray was safely reducing the speed of the tractor, as he was approaching the end of the row of vines.

'The likely cause of the claimant falling from the pallet was that it was set at a low level and the pallet made contact with the ground,' he said.

Mr Evans also said there were external controls on the tractor that Mr Hollingworth had used to raise the height of the rear forks and 'therefore, the height of the pallet'.

He claimed Mr Hollingworth had failed to use the controls to raise the forks and pallet to a suitable height and had also failed to properly hold on to the tractor.

The case has not yet been heard before a judge, but will be listed for a full trial of the claim at a later date - unless the parties settle outside court.