Thursday 30 August 2007

BARRHEAD/GLASOW: I'm scared of my yob neighbour

I'm scared of my yob neighbour

A BARRHEAD woman fears her family are ‘living under constant threat’ after a neighbour attacked her husband with a metal pole.

Liz and Alan McPhee (pictured above) revealed how they have installed CCTV cameras in their own home after yob Andrew Downer assaulted Alan outside their local supermarket.

Downer, of Dunterlie Court, recently pleaded guilty at Paisley Sheriff Court to assaulting Mr McPhee outside Barrhead Tesco by striking him on the arm with a metal wheel brace.

A plea of not guilty to carrying an offensive weapon was accepted but he was fined

£750 in relation to the attack.

Alan said: “I was walking from the pet store when I saw him.

“He said something abusive to me but I kept walking and went into Tesco. When I came out I saw him charging towards me with the pole.

“I put up my arm to deflect the blow and he caught that instead.

“I managed to push him but even when he was lying on the ground he was still waving the pole and threatening to get me.

“One man helped me keep him there until the police arrived.

“A woman saw him attacking me and she ran into Tesco to phone the police.”

Alan received stitches to his elbow following the assault and still bears a scar more

than eight months on.

The couple told of a long running dispute between the two families going on for more than five years - and started by two children falling out.

Liz said: “Basically our son fell out with their son. But since then it’s been hell.

“Since the attack on Alan though we are scared about what could happen next.

“This man is obviously capable of violence and the fact he attacked my husband in a public place just goes to show that he’s not scared who witnesses it.

“We have a young family and sometimes you wonder why you put up with living this way.

“But we love our house, our children have settled and made friends and we think ‘why should someone like this drive us away?’”

http://www.barrheadnews.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=1099&format=html

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