Retired carer Janette Price, 69, said she hadn’t planned the stabbing and only brought the kitchen knife with her to the victim’s door because ‘she always runs off’
A pensioner stabbed her neighbour twice after a long-running feud came to a violent conclusion.
Janette Price, 69, had a regular disputes with a couple who lived next door to her on Lincoln Road in Redcar. On the morning of July 23, last year, the pair called the police and Price was warned to leave them alone.
However, a matter of hours later she knocked on her neighbours’ door armed with a kitchen knife. After the woman answered the door, Price lunged at her and stabbed her with such force that it penetrated her liver, reports TeessideLive.
She then injured the victim’s hand with a second stab wound. Price delayed the paramedics access to the woman by sitting in her neighbours’ doorway.
The retired carer also refused to drop the knife once the police arrived, leading officers to Taser her. As she was led away, Price said: “I know I did wrong. They’ve tortured me.
“I only went round to say I had got a solicitor. I took the knife because she always runs off. I didn’t take it to stab her.”
The victim underwent surgery under general anaesthetic at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, to repair the damage to her liver. She now has limited mobility in her hand and is waiting for further surgery.
On Wednesday, Price broke down in tears as Jolyon Perks told Teesside Crown Court that the housing association which manages the properties on Lincoln Road, had received complaints “about the upkeep of Ms Price’s property and about her drinking”. “She made counter complaints,” he added.
The police issued an anti-social behaviour letter to Price as a warning. But on the morning of the incident, Price’s neighbours called the police again to report that she was bothering them.
Officers arrived to find the pensioner arguing with the neighbour on their doorstep. They reported that Price had been drinking and “was slurring her words” as they escorted her home.
But hours later, Price knocked at the neighbours door again and they filmed her as she told them: “I’ve gone way above your head. Apparently you’ve caused lots of problems with other tenants.
“I have a solicitor, I’ve paid £2,000 for. I’ve decided to take you to court and you can pay the costs. What’s wrong with you, that you can’t work? You can run to the bus stop.”
Minutes later the recording picked up the victim shouting, “she f****** stabbed me. She f****** stabbed me twice.”
The victim sat in court with her partner, as Mr Perks read out her statement. She said: “I am a nervous wreck. I’ve been having nightmares about the stabbing happening again. I’ve been diagnosed with anxiety and PTSD. I can’t be left on my own. This is affecting my relationship.”
Price pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and the possession of a bladed article, at a previous hearing. Her defence barrister, Victoria Lamballe, told the court that the there was “considerable animosity between the neighbours” and the upset was exacerbated for Price “by the fact that she lives alone and because of her declining mental state.”
Ms Lamballe said that her client had shown “genuine remorse” for what she did “and is at a loss to explain how she is capable of such violence.” Price will not return to live at her rented home, which is owned by Beyond Housing.
Judge Jonathan Carroll jailed Price for 32 months. She will serve half of the sentence in custody and the time she has spent on remand will also be taken off, before she is released on licence. A indefinite restraining order was put in place preventing her from contacting her former neighbour or entering Lincoln Road.