If you’re that disabled, you shouldn’t be driving
MUM WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS CLAIMS NEIGHBOUR TOLD HER...
I was terrified, she tells trial
A woman living with a brain disorder has taken her neighbour to court after claiming a parking row descended into a torrent of hate-filled abuse.
Claire Rankine, 44, insists 36-yearold Donna Wilson abused her for having a disability and targeted her because she has multiple sclerosis.
She told Paisley Sheriff Court that Wilson shouted and swore at her, saying: “You shouldn’t be f*****g driving if you’re that f*****g disabled”.
“I was totally terrified and she was shouting and bawling for all my neighbours to hear.”
A mum with multiple sclerosis claims her neighbour humiliated her in a row over parking and fumed: “You shouldn’t be f***** g driving if you’re that f*****g disabled.”
Claire Rankine, 44, insists Donna Wilson, 36, intentionally blocked her driveway before hurling abuse.
The driver says she is the victim of a hate crime and was targeted because of her illness.
At Paisley Sheriff Court, Wilson denied bawling foul- mouthed rants and offensive remarks.
Mrs Rankine claims she pleaded with the woman next door to shift but was met with a barrage of insults.
She said: “I asked her if she could move her car. “She told me to f**k off. “I felt intimidated and scared. I was just trying to get in.
“I asked if she would just move it up a little bit.
“She told me, ‘You shouldn’t be f*****g driving if you’re that f*****g disabled.’
“I was totally terrified and she was shouting and bawling for all my neighbours to hear. “She totally ridiculed me. “It made me feel like I had no right to drive.
“It’s my last bit of independence and she was making out like I wasn’t allowed.
“People don’t know I have adaptations on my car.
“It’s personal to me – she had no right. “She found it funny. “It was a hate crime – it was vile, it was vindictive, it was nasty.”
Mrs Rankine told the court she suffers from MS and Lyme disease, causing pain in her legs.
She says she arrived home but found Wilson’s Ford Focus blocking off her driveway.
The mum claims she asked her to move, but was ignored for seven minutes, before the situation turned nasty.
A neighbour heard the dispute
I was totally terrified and she was shouting and bawling for all the neighbours to hear Claire Rankine
in Linwood’s Erskinefauld Road and tried to intervene.
Margaret Campbell, 44, told the court she heard raised voices, then Wilson telling the woman next door she should not be on the road. She said: “I was shocked. “I thought it was nasty. “I have an 11-year-old daughter with disabilities and wouldn’t be happy if somebody discriminated against her.
“Donna turned around quite aggressively and said, ‘ It’s got nothing to do with you.’”
Mrs Rankine claims she has been scarred by the argument and is too frightened to leave her house.
Defence lawyer Chris McKenna agreed there was an argument after months of rowing between the neighbours.
But he said Mrs Rankine had “grossly exaggerated” the spat on October 22 last year.
The brief called her a “serial complainer” and claimed she had even sounded off about how her neighbours opened their blinds.
He revealed Mrs Rankine had hit their car a fortnight earlier and refused to apologise, demanding they park somewhere else.
The trial, before Sheriff Seith Ireland, continues.