According to a Metro UK report, a grandmother has revealed the terrible injuries she suffered at the hands of her neighbour because her friends were ‘making too much noise’ during her birthday.
May King returned home with some friends after celebrating her 80th at the Kelly pub in South Tyneside.
But Michael Raine attacked her at around 2.30am when they started to leave her home.
He barged into 72-year-old Anne Ovington who fell over and twisted her ankle so badly that she couldn’t wear shoes for over a week.
May’s granddaughter and friend tried to usher Raine, who was wearing his girlfriend’s white dressing gown and flip flops, away.
But he attacked May, who is now 81, after she asked him to leave, causing bruises to her face and arms.
May, who lived on the street for 57 years, said: ‘My 80th birthday should have been a celebration. It turned into one of the most horrendous days of my life.
‘When he hit me the first time it just threw me completely. I didn’t fall over, but my head was completely spinning.
‘I couldn’t really remember anything after that, but everyone said they saw him hit me a second time.
‘I can still feel the impact of it to this day. My face went completely numb. When he came to the door he was giving it large and pointing and gesturing down to me.
‘He was saying for us to keep the noise down, even though there was no noise at all. I think he waited until my ex-army sons had left before coming over.
‘After the attack he just left nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened. The hospital were most concerned about my eye socket, where the impact was, because I had two strokes within the recent few years.’
May, now 81, spent over three hours in A&E, where she needed x-rays and tests before being discharged.
Upon his arrest last May, Raine was charged with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of assault by beating – but he pleaded guilty to a lesser single charge of affray at Newcastle Crown Court.
Two counts of assault will lie on file.
However May and her family were devastated when their ‘neighbour from hell’, who has previous convictions of assault, was allowed to walk free from court after sentencing.
He was handed just a 12 month suspended sentence, and a two year restraining order.
Mother-of-five May said: ‘I can’t believe that he has basically got away with it. Anne was so badly injured in the fracas she could barely walk while my friend was struck in the head.
‘He tried to hit my granddaughter Melanie, so her boyfriend Joe stepped in to restrain him. Joe also sustained facial injuries which were worse than mine in the chaos which ensued.
‘They were only there for me so that we could have a nice evening. I have spent hundreds on CCTV cameras to put around my house, so that I can be confident that I won’t see him near.
‘I have always been an outgoing person but now I am like a completely different person. I am basically a nervous wreck and I still struggle to get over it.
‘I don’t want to have to live like this. I used to go out every day but now I don’t want to.
‘My self confidence has been completely knocked by his actions – I am still receiving counselling because of it all.’
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