AN ELDERLY man who had recently undergone spinal cord surgery was pushed off a wall by a neighbour after their relationship turned ‘sour’.

Samantha Thompson, 34, pushed her 81-year-old victim from the wall he was sitting on, just 10 days after he had been discharged from hospital.

Months later, Thompson, who has ‘significant’ mental health issues, became involved in a verbal altercation with two other neighbours, who she branded ‘fat b******s’.

She pleaded guilty to assault by beating and two charges of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Outlining the case at Workington Magistrates’ Court, prosecutor Pamela Fee said the 81-year-old victim had recently undergone spinal surgery and had been in hospital 10 days prior to the assault.

On May 2, the victim was sat on a wall outside his home in Maryport, waiting for his daughter to collect him. He could hear Thompson walking down the steps from her flat and she was ‘making a lot of noise’.

Thompson then pushed the victim backwards from the wall and ‘mumbled something’. The victim said he was ‘furious’ because he had just had surgery. Thompson carried on walking up the road. A neighbour came over to help him.

In a statement read to the court, the victim said: “I have been so lucky not to have landed on my head or neck. I would have been paralysed.

“I had an operation on my spinal cord and recovery is going to take a while.

“I felt pain. I had to go to hospital to get checked out, which luckily hasn’t affected my spinal cord, but could have.

“Since Samantha Thompson assaulted me, I’m worried about leaving my house in case I see her. I have lived on the street since 2003. I have never felt like this.

“I live in fear of leaving my home address. I have contacted Castles and Coasts to complain about her.”

Thompson was then involved in another incident with neighbours on August 17.

Ms Fee said the defendant had looked through the window of a house on Queen Street in Maryport. One of the occupants came outside and asked her to leave.

Thompson then returned and ‘continued to stare through the window’. Thompson then said: “We will finish this here and now. Come out and have a fight.”

She then told two women that they were ‘nosy’ and ‘two fat b******s’.

Thompson was arrested. She said she had walked past the house and ‘something had caught her eye’. She said the two victims ‘started screaming’ at her, saying their window was not a mirror.

She said every time she walks past, they shout at her. She said they ‘get off on beating people down’.

John Cooper, defending, said Thompson had ‘some quite significant mental health issues’.

He said she had initially got on well with the 81-year-old victim when she moved to the address but the relationship had ‘soured’.

Mr Cooper said: “Her own mental health issues have been an issue, as well. If she’s upstairs having a mental health episode, it’s affecting him.

“She wasn’t aware of the operation. He seems to have been reasonably fit and capable.

“She said, ‘I have got no excuse for pushing him. I shouldn’t have done.’”

Mr Cooper said the defendant ‘hadn’t fit in particularly well with her neighbours’.

He said: “She looked through the window. People then exit the house and shout at her. She’s shouting back.

“I think she’s a lady who needs professional help from mental health services. She is quite vulnerable because of her mental health issues.

“She is a nuisance to her neighbours. We have to accept that.”

Magistrates imposed a 12-month community order with 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days. Thompson must also pay £300 in compensation to the 81-year-old victim.