Kentish Express Ashford & District
Mum used baseball bat on love rival’s daughter
A feud between two Ashford families came to the boil when a mum hit a love rival’s teenage daughter over the head with a baseball bat.
The vitriol between the Beards and the Morrisseys spilled over into the street in Guernsey Road in May two years ago. Fighting then broke out in Michelle Beard’s home after she taunted Samantha Morrissey about a child of hers who had died.
Now a judge has told the 38-year-old Beard, now of School Lane, Iwade: “It is difficult to think of a more offensive and provocative thing to say to someone than to threaten to p*** on the grave of the dead child.”
Canterbury Crown Court heard how the background involved a relationship between Beard and Ms Morrissey’s husband, Dan, while the couple were estranged.
Prosecutor Abigail White told how during the row, Beard got a baseball bat “and brought it down hard on the head” of Kirsten Morrissey, causing a serious wound.
“On that day Beard was out on the street goading the Morrissey family and some of the things she said to Samantha were particularly upsetting, referencing the death of a child and the fact she wanted to p*** on the grave’,” Ms White said.
The Morrisseys then went into Beard’s address where fighting broke out between the children.
“Rather than stopping the children fight, Michelle Beard decided she was going to make matters worse by punching Kirsten before hitting her with a baseball bat. It was a sustained attack. She brought the bat down with two hands twice, making contact on at least once occasion causing a very large cut to the top of her head, which needed six stitches,” she added.
The court heard that after the police were called, Beard was said to have hit herself and urged her children to do the same so they would appear the victims.
The baseball bat was later handed to police officers by Dan Morrissey.
Beard claimed she had only “prodded” the victim, who is now 18, and alleged she had been assaulted during the melee.
Recorder Jonathan Higgs QC said there had been bad blood between the families and verbal abuse between the parties.
He added that the violence was caused by the goading over the child’s death.
“What followed wasn’t just a fight and not just an assault because you used a baseball bat.
“Your victim received a head wound and its miraculous her injuries weren’t more serious.”
He jailed Beard, who admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, for 21 months.
The Morrissey family watched the hearing from the public gallery. Kirsten wept throughout the proceedings and was comforted by her mother.