OAP, 78, subjected to horrific attack

Pensioner driving car was punched in the face by passenger

A frail pensioner said she had visions of “somebody finding my body on the pavement” during a brutal attack in Fife.

Janice Nolan was subjected to a horrific ordeal at the hands of drunken 41-year-old stranger Shirley Coulter after the 78-year-old was forced into giving her a lift in Glenrothes.

Coulter began to punch the pensioner in the face as she drove.

The sickening attack then continued on the street, with Coulter kicking Ms Nolan’s head “like a football”.

“I was trying to hit her back but I’m 78,” Ms

Nolan said.

“She burst my nose, broke my glasses – there was blood everywhere.”

Coulter will be sentenced next month in relation to the attack.

A 78-year-old woman told a court how she thought she would be killed as a stranger “used her head like a football” during a horrific attack.

The pensioner suffered multiple injuries including a broken hip when she was brutally assaulted by the drunken woman.

Janice Nolan was forced into giving Shirley Coulter a lift in her car in Glenrothes and was then viciously punched in the face as she drove.

She was punched by 41-year-old Coulter, knocked to ground and then her head was kicked.

Bizarrely, Coulter had called the police saying she was being driven in the car against her will by a drunk woman.

The victim was found lying in the street in agony and covered in blood.

As a result of the drink-driving complaint the police repeatedly tried to take a breath sample from the badly injured woman.

The horrific incident began when Ms Nolan, after a night at the bingo, went to visit a friend, 62-year-old Kathleen Shevlin, at her home.

When she was there, Coulter started banging on the door, forced her way into the house and started making accusations against Ms Shevlin, who did not know her.

It turned out Coulter was the daughter of a former friend of Ms Shevlin and was accusing her of stealing rings.

Coulter then remained in the house for more than two hours, drinking, and then attacked Ms Shevlin, punching her in the face.

Ms Nolan told the court when she left her friend’s home, Coulter had gone in front of her and got in her car with her son.

Asked if she had asked Coulter to leave, the witness said: “I wouldn’t dare. She was confrontational and aggressive. I was being polite about it and trying to keep on her good side.”

The pensioner dropped off the boy at his home but his mother would not leave the car saying she was “going for a f ****** drink”.

Ms Nolan drove on but did not know the area. Coulter asked to smoke the woman’s e-cigarette and when she asked for it back it triggered a violent reaction.

“I was driving along and the next thing her fist went right in my face. She burst my nose, broke my glasses, there was blood everywhere.”

Ms Nolan was knocked to the ground and the attack continued.

“She was using my head like a football,” the pensioner said.

After a three-day jury trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Coulter, of Barrie Path, Glenrothes, was found guilty of all charges she faced.

On August 1 last year at an address on Napier Road, Glenrothes, she entered uninvited, shouted, swore and made offensive remarks to Kathleen Shevlin and assaulted her.

At Scott Road, Glenrothes, she stole an electronic cigarette.

In a car travelling from Napier Road to Scott Road, she assaulted Janice Nolan then repeatedly kicked her on the head and body, all to her severe injury.

Sheriff Charles MacNair deferred sentence on Coulter until September 11.

She burst my nose, broke my glasses, there was blood everywhere