Middlesbrough nightmare neighbour spared jail after hitting teen with butter knife

A woman who made her neighbours’ lives a nightmare has been spared prison to be supervised at home.

The judge was told that 45-year-old Linda Sharp from Middlesbrough had a mental disorder which would deteriorate if she was sent to jail.

Prosecutor Sue Jacobs told Teesside Crown Court that one family moved away because of Sharp’s abusive screaming.

Sharp attacked a neighbour’s car when the family arrived home on June 25 and then she banged loudly on their front door until she was told to go away.

She returned 90 minutes later and she began pulling at another neighbour’s fence and “screaming like a lunatic”.

Mrs Jacobs said that the woman saw Sharp walk past her window and some time later she walked back up the road holding a butter knife in her hand.

She began shouting and screaming at a man who was standing at his garden gate. She threw the knife at him but he ducked and it hit a 13-year-old girl on the knee.

The police were called and they arrested Sharp, who had been in court in 2006 and 2010 for assaults on police.

Gary Ward, defending, said that a psychiatric report said that she was suffering from a form of mental disorder which would deteriorate if she was sent to prison. She was anxious to engage fully with the mental health services.

The judge said that Sharp also had a problem with drink, but it was her first court appearance for anything of this nature.

The judge Recorder Felicity Davies told Sharp: “The court is concerned for public safety and protection.

“In my judgment, having read the psychiatric and pre-sentence reports, the public would be best served by the court sentencing you to a community order so that you have both supervision and assistance from the probation service to monitor your care and treatment in association with your GP and to deal with your alcohol consumption which may well be behind your behaviour.”

The judge added: “You must avoid causing trouble to your neighbours, and if you do that it may assist you and your neighbours.”

Sharp, of Kestrel Avenue, Middlesbrough, was given an 18 months community order with supervision after she pleaded guilty to having an article with a blade in a public place and also to common assault.