Woman who attacked love rival spared jail

A SCORNED woman who attacked and harassed a love rival after being dumped by her boyfriend on Christmas Eve has avoided jail.

Joanna Mensah, from Bacup, kicked her victim in the face before smashing a house window and bombarding her with phone calls, Burnley Crown Court heard.

The grandmother-offour pleaded guilty to putting a person in fear of violence through harassment and criminal damage and was given a three-month jail sentence, suspended for six months.

Daniel Prowse, prosecuting, told the court how Mensah, 57, and the victim had been neighbours and good friends but their relationship broke down in December last year after a ‘dispute over a lover’.

The court heard how on December 14 Mensah pulled her to the ground by her hair and ‘kicking her to the face’.

On December 24 she then went round to the victim’s home to speak to the man after he ended their relationship and smashed a rear window causing £250 worth of damage.

Mr Prowse said Mensah, of Burnley Road, then threw various items through the window in the direction of the victim and ‘attempted to climb through’.

However when she failed she shouted ‘ You are dead. My brother is going to kill you.’

The court heard how on January 3 this year Mensah made 55 calls to the victim between 6.30pm and 9.25pm and when she answered three of them she heard the former hotel chamber maid ‘laughing’.

Mr Prowse said Mensah also posted a hand- written letter through her door ‘making threats against her’.

Timothy Brennand, defending, said Mensah’s ‘gratuitous violence is not something of a feature or hallmark of her [previous] offending behaviour’.

He told the court: “It’s a very unhappy and rather embarrassing story to recite in open court.”

Mr Brennand said Mensah was drunk when the ‘ugly fight took place’ and said it was ‘unnecessary and disproportionate’ and she ‘accepts full responsibility’.

He told the court that the man decided to end his relationship with the defendant on Christmas Eve and went to the other woman’s home. A ‘drunk’ Mensah then went to her house to ‘try and remonstrate and find out why and what circumstances’.

Mr Brennand said she was ‘certainly old enough to know better’.