Neighbour is guilty of attacking his parents’ neighbour to leave her with broken eye socket, ribs and collar bone in row over fence and ivy bush

• Brian Saunders left pensioner Wendy Douglas with injuries during 2021 incident
• He was found guilty of grievous bodily harm and not guilty of theft by a jury 

A man has been found guilty of attacking his parents neighbour, leaving her with a broken eye socket, ribs and collar bone in a row over a fence and ivy bush. 

Brian Saunders left pensioner Wendy Douglas with the injuries during an incident at a property on Ascot Road in Kingston Park, Newcastle, on June 12, 2021 following a dispute between his parents and Ms Douglas. 

During the trial, jurors heard that Ms Douglas lived next door to the defendant’s parents and that they had been embroiled in a dispute over a fence and an ivy busy.

Events came to a head around noon in June 2012 when Ms Douglas, who was 68 at the time of the incident, started to trim a bush she claims was in her garden. 

She told Newcastle Crown Court her neighbour came out and began shouting at her before heading back into his property. He returned later to ask for cuttings from the plant. 

Brian Saunders left pensioner Wendy Douglas with the injuries during the incident in 2021

The incident at a property on Ascot Road in Kingston Park, Newcastle, on June 12, 2021

Saunders is set to be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court in January next year 

Ms Douglas told the court that Saunders arrived at his parents’ house later and approached her while she sat on a sun lounger. 

The court heard there was an exchange of words about putting up a new fence before Saunders saw a mobile phone in Ms Douglas’s hand. 

The court was told that he then came into her garden, allegedly snatched the phone and attacked her. Jurors were told that he put his knee across her right shoulder and pinned her down, before putting his hands around her throat and shaking her. 

Saunders denied the allegations and claimed that Ms Douglas suffered the injuries after she tripped over a dog as she attempted to get up from the sun lounger, before falling into a plant pot and suffering what appeared to be a fit. 

Giving evidence during the trial, he told jurors he had tried to help Ms Douglas to get up and that she was screeching ‘absolute histrionics’ to get attention. 

But pathologist Dr Peter Cooper told the court Ms Douglas’s injuries were more consistent with a punch rather than a fall. 

He said she suffered two types of bleeding to the eye, one on the surface, and the other deep in the chamber of the eye.  

Saunders, of Hazlerigg, Newcastle, pleaded not guilty to counts of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent and one of theft, related to an accusation that he stole Ms Douglas’s mobile phone. 

He was found guilty of GBH and not guilty of theft. 

He will be sentenced on January 23, and was warned that he faces an inevitable prison sentence. 

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