A mum stormed out of the courtroom after she was found guilty of knocking down a fellow parent with her car following a spat.
Kirsti Morton, 31, knocked down Danielle Smith on a busy street after a feud between the two mums turned violent, Perth Sheriff Court in Perth heard. Jurors were told both mums were involved in a long-running scrap that turned violent in Green Park, Kinross, shortly before Morton tried to run down Ms Smith.
The mum alleged that Morton was "wanting a fight" and "trying to get a rise" out of herself and another mother with whom she was walking down the street after collecting her children from nursery at 3pm on August 24, 2022. The next thing she remembered, she told the court, was "a loud revving sound" before she was put "completely to the floor".
She told the court: "I'm guessing I was hit by the car door because it totally wiped me out. It struck my lower back and put me completely to the floor." The court heard that she suffered scrapes and bruises following the incident, and has scars on her knees and hip, with her iPhone left smashed and clothes damaged.
The Daily Record reported that Ms Smith said the two had earlier clashed in Kinross during an exchange in which she claimed she had to wriggle out of her jacket as Morton tried to pull her hood off. She said: "She was just going off her head - pure arms flailing about. She just wanted to fight with me." Morton claimed to have been the one assaulted and that her face was left "gushing with blood".
Jurors found the allegation Morton assaulted Ms Smith at the park was not proven, but later determined she was guilty of accelerating at speed and driving dangerously before hitting Ms Smith. The mum was charged by police with assaulting Ms Smith, causing permanent disfigurement and danger of her life, her best friend Shannon McGurk, 27, was also accused of assaulting the mum.
McGurk was found not guilty midway through the trial, and jurors found the charge on Morton not proven, instead delivering a guilty verdict on the alternative, lesser, charges. She was also found guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm after she challenged Ms Smith to a fight and acted in an aggressive manner towards her.
Additionally, she was found guilty of breaching bail conditions by approaching Ms Smith at Giacopazzi's store on April 6, 2023. The mum-of-three wept at the dock as the verdict was delivered and stormed out of court after she was placed on curfew for three months and banned from driving for a year.
Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC said: "You behaved in an aggressive manner towards Danielle Smith instead of removing yourself from the situation. The location was a road where children were being collected from school, straight after school. There was a reasonable amount of traffic and people walking children home from school."