A pensioner was left unconscious and too scared to leave her home for a year after being assaulted by a woman who believed she had slapped a primary school child.
Aimee Lee was said to have run at Mary Anderson “like a raging bull” before pushing her to the ground in Cowdenbeath’s Johnston Park in July 2021.
A jury trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard the victim, then aged 74, was left with fractures to her cheek bone and wrist and needed stitches in her eyebrow, which she said is still lumpy.
Asked by procurator fiscal depute Laurelle Johnston about the psychological impact of the incident, Mrs Anderson said: “At the beginning it was really bad.
“I never left the house for a year. I was too scared to go outside”.
Weeks of ‘antisocial behaviour’
Mrs Anderson told the trial she had been at a neighbour’s house and had come out to be met by a “horseshoe” of youths.
She said she and other neighbours had been experiencing antisocial behaviour for about five weeks before this.
Her friend’s husband, George Smith, had been in the garden at the time, heard some commotion and approached to tell them to leave. He acknowledged he was swearing.
He escorted Mrs Anderson down a lane towards her own gate, while making a 101 call to police.
Mrs Anderson said a girl ran towards her in the lane and she told the child: “Please, not again, go away”.
It was suggested to Mrs Anderson by defence lawyer Pete Robertson the girl had been antagonised by either her or one of her neighbours but Mrs Anderson denied this.
Mr Robertson suggested the child had been petting her dog when Mrs Anderson slapped her in the face. Mrs Anderson again this.
She said the girl approached her as she held out her arm to keep a safe distance to reduce Covid risk.
She said: “My palm was facing her for three steps back and on the third time, she pushed her face into my hand.
“I certainly never hit that girl at all.”
Head ‘bouncing off pavement’
The woman said she next remembers Lee coming at her, screaming and shouting, before she was knocked out.
Mr Smith told the trial he recalled Lee “coming down like a raging bull” and shouting to him that his wife had “slapped” the child.
He said the girl then pointed to Mrs Anderson and Lee “ran to her and knocked her against the fence”.
Mr Smith said she was knocked unconscious and “split her head” as it was “bouncing off the pavement”.
He said this all happened while he was on the phone to police.
It was suggested to Mrs Anderson and Mr Smith by Mr Robertson she had pushed Lee first but they both denied this.
Mr Smith said: “The old lady did not even know it was coming”.
Woman ‘shocked’ by arrest
Lee, 37, told the court she had pushed Mrs Anderson in retaliation but denied running at her with force.
Asked if she was taking the law into her own hands, she said: “Not at all but what gives her the right to slap a little girl?
“When the police came to arrest me, it was a complete and utter shock.
“I was still waiting for them to come out about (the child) being slapped by an adult.
“I didn’t intend to hurt anyone.
“I didn’t think me just pushing her had caused such severe injuries.”
A jury convicted Lee by majority of assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement and impairment.
The jurors did not find any provocation in relation to the assault.
First offender Lee was found guilty of a second charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting and swearing.
Sheriff Charles Macnair deferred sentencing until March 9 to obtain background reports and she was bailed.
Mr Robertson was asked by the sheriff if he wanted to say anything further, to which he said: “Only to pass on the remorse Ms Lee has in relation to the victim and the injuries she suffered”.
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