A Fife woman told a trial how she was left with an eyelid hanging off after being keyed at a New Year’s party where her daughter was allegedly stamped by two mothers and their daughters.
Patricia Donaldson claims she was struck in the eye by Wilma Cunniffe when she went to the Cardenden house to get answers after her daughter Melissa appeared at her door with facial injuries.
Melissa Donaldson told a jury she was assaulted in the garden as she left the gathering following an argument over a “smart” comment made by Cunniffe’s daughter, Yazmin, about her eyes.
Jurors at Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard Patricia Donaldson needed an operation and stitches to her eyelid following the episode on January 2 2020.
Prosecutors allege mother and daughter Wilma and Yazmin Cunniffe, aged 50 and 22, and Jennifer Kelly, 38, and her 18-year-old daughter Rachel Kelly, assaulted Melissa Donaldson by knocking her to the ground and repeatedly kicking and stamping on her head to her injury.
The Cunniffes, of Carden Castle Park, along with Rachel Kelly, are also charged with knocking Patricia Donaldson to the ground, punching and kicking her on the head and body, and punching her to the head while holding a key or similar implement, to her severe injury.
The alleged assaults took place at the Kellys’ home in Cluny Park, Cardenden.
All four women, who are Melissa Donaldson’s cousins and second cousins, deny the charges and both mothers have lodged notices of self-defence.
‘Laughed’ at blood pouring down face
Retired nurse Patricia Donaldson, 66, told the trial it was her “mother’s instinct” to go to the house party after her daughter turned up at her door with a swollen face and “foot marks” on her back.
She said she went with her sister, who lives nearby, to “ask what the hell happened” to her daughter and find out “why they attacked her”.
Ms Donaldson said they were let inside before a number of people came “rushing” out of the living room.
She said Yazmin Cunniffe and Rachel Kelly grabbed her hair and pulled her backwards onto the bottom of some stairs.
She said she then saw Wilma Cunniffe being handed an object, before being struck in the eye.
Ms Donaldson said: “She (Wilma) hit me with the outer part of her closed fist with a pointy thing sticking out and she hit my eyelid.
“It was a goldy colour – to me it was a key.
“When blood was pouring down my eye, they had pulled my head back to see the damage done – laughing – and that’s when I caught Yasmin’s and Rachel’s face.
“They were on each side of me, holding me down”.
‘Eyelid was hanging down’
Asked by prosecutor Laura McManus about her injuries, Ms Donaldson said: “My eye was split.
“My eyelid was actually hanging down. There was a lot of blood”.
Defence lawyer Ian Beatson, representing Wilma Cunniffe, put it to Ms Donaldson that she is “making things up” and actually fell and struck her face on the key in the back of the door.
Mr Beatson said her “mother’s instinct” to go round to the house was “another name for retribution” and suggested she took her sister with her for “back up”.
Ms Donaldson said Jennifer Kelly had posted on Facebook the next day that her front door key was missing and Melissa messaged back to say it “went in my mum’s eye”.
Ex ‘recognised boots’
Melissa Donaldson told the trial she and her then-partner, David Laing, had shared a bottle of vodka at her mother’s New Year’s Day family gathering before attending the house party and admitted being “pretty drunk”.
The 31-year-old full-time mum said she became aware of the younger two accused – then aged 19 and 15 – staring and laughing at her and Yazmin making a “smart” comment in the kitchen similar to “why do your eyes look like that?”.
Ms Donaldson said this sparked an argument and she decided to leave.
As the dispute spilled into the front garden, she said she somehow ended up on the ground before being repeatedly kicked in the face.
She said: “I was just trying to cover my face the best I could”.
She did not require medical attention for any of her injuries.
She initially told the trial she “assumed” it was the mothers and daughters kicking her, before saying she saw them all hit her and after the alleged attack, saw all four of them around her.
Defence lawyers argued Ms Donaldson had lost her temper and tried to attack Yazmin Cunniffe over the perceived slight – which they suggested was made out of concern – and her mother had to step in to defend her daughter.
Jennifer Kelly’s defence lawyer, Alexander Flett, suggested Ms Donaldson was drunk and refusing to leave and took hold of his client’s hair as she tried to shut the garden gate, leading to them falling to the ground.
Mr Laing told the trial he had been scuffling with another man in the garden at the same time after being told “you better get your dog on a lead”.
He said he could see “three or four” pairs of female legs kicking Ms Donaldson but could not identify them, though the trial heard his police statement from the time said he recognised a pair of boots being worn by Yazmin Cunniffe.
The trial, before Sheriff Charles Macnair, continues.
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