Pensioner threatened by abusive neighbour

A WOMAN who previously stabbed her boyfriend threatened her elderly neighbour for being a “nosy busybody” and called her an “old b****”.

Yasmin Harris, 29, became involved in an argument with her neighbour in Swansea on August 26, after she complained about the defendant and her boyfriend keeping her up all night with loud music and arguing.

The neighbour initially complained to Harris’s partner Philip Williams but when the defendant overheard, she got into the victim’s face and called her a “c***”, a “nosy busybody” and an “old b****”.

She also raised her wrist and kept screaming and shouting that it was “nothing to do” with the neighbour. The incident continued until other neighbours intervened and got in between them.

Prosecutor Sophie Hill, speaking at a sentencing hearing at Swansea Crown Court on Thursday, October 1, said: “The complainant says she was petrified and was afraid the defendant was going to hit her.”

Later on that evening, the victim’s daughter knocked on the Harris’s door but when the defendant answered she shouted at her and called her a “c***” as well. She then threw a punch at the daughter, who reacted by grabbing Harris’ hair.

The defendant, now of Llangynin, St Clears, Carmarthenshire, was arrested later that day and admitted shouting at her neighbour but claimed her neighbour’s daughter had instigated the second incident.

She later pleaded guilty to two counts of section four public order offence.

In a victim personal statement, the pensioner said Harris and her partner were “always arguing” and she was “petrified” of both of them.

She added: “She was very abusive and left me feeling scared about what they could do to me.”

The daughter said her mother now felt “unsafe in her own home” and is terrified of calling the police due to repercussions.

The court heard Harris was in breach of a suspended sentence order for stabbing her then partner Mr Williams by “defending herself with excessive force”.

He was left with “penetration type injuries” to his neck and chest and lacerations to his left hand, which had been made by a kitchen knife.

Mother-of-two Harris was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years, for unlawful wounding.

Defence barrister Hannah George said her client was sorry for the way she behaved towards the pensioner and her daughter

She added: “The trigger for her offending is the relationship with her ex partner, that is in my submission the background to her offending and she accepts it was a toxic relationship, but the relationship is now over.”

Judge Paul Thomas QC remanded Harris in custody until October 9 to consider the sentence.

On that date she was sentenced to three months imprisonment suspended for 12 months and was ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work.

She was also made subject to a restraining order for three years.