A MAN who battered a 92-year-old woman with a washing line pole has been jailed for nine months.
Stephen Dyer, 38, launched the attack during an incident in a garden in Brechin on May 8. Helen Dinnie, 92, was sitting with her friend Matilda Longmuir, 89, enjoying the sunshine, while Lauren Robertson, 22, sat with friends on the other side of the communal green at the block of flats. Dyer turned up and began an argument with Miss Robertson before grabbing her by the throat.
He then picked up a two square foot wooden fencing pallet and smashed it over her head “with force” before punching her repeatedly on the head and body.
Forfar Sheriff Court heard one of her friends then tried to step in, prompting Dyer to pick up a six-foot long wooden washing line pole. Dyer, who has previous convictions for burglary, battery and grievous bodily harm in England, then swung it in a “Star Wars light saber movement” at another man.
He jumped out of the way with the pole instead smashing into Mrs Dinnie as she sat in her deckchair.
Dyer then dropped the pole and ran off.
Mrs Dinnie said outside court: “This is the first time anything like this has happened to me in 49 years here.
“I wasn’t badly hurt but it could have been a lot worse."
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