The two women, who lived next-door to each other, had earlier had an argument in their gardens
An angry bully suddenly jumped over a garden fence, grabbed a woman by her neck with both hands and started strangling her before dragging her around the garden during a bad-tempered confrontation. Cocaine-taking serial criminal John Fennell joined in with an argument involving the woman and his sister, who was a neighbour of the victim at the time.
The incident escalated and turned violent after he hurled abuse at the victim, Hull Crown Court heard. Fennell, 34, of Brigham Grove, east Hull, but recently in custody on remand, admitted offences of intentional strangulation and possessing cocaine on May 17.
The court heard that Fennell’s sister was the woman’s next-door neighbour. Before the trouble flared, the woman knocked on her neighbour’s door because she wanted to speak about something.
The sister was described as getting irate and the woman went back to her home. There was later an argument between them in their gardens and Fennell joined in and started to call the woman names.
He jumped over a fence and went over to the woman before grabbing her by her neck with both hands. He dragged her around the garden. Another neighbour shouted: “Get off her. She has got kids inside.”
The witness went into the victim’s garden and pulled Fennell off her. He ran back into the next-door house, where he stayed until the police arrived. Officers had been alerted by the victim.
When Fennell was arrested, he was found to have two small bags of a white substance, which tested positive for cocaine, the court heard.
During police interview, he made no comment to all questions. He had convictions for 87 previous offences.
Billy Torbett, mitigating, said that Fennell had a “terrible record” of previous offences. He was released from custody in December last year and found employment in January this year until April, when he was dismissed after failing a drugs test.
“This was a significant blow for him and he turned to substance misuse and drinking,” said Mr Torbett. “He lost all purpose”.
During the incident involving the woman, there was said to be a “level of provocation” and Fennell reacted to this, claimed Mr Torbett. Fennell was very remorseful for his behaviour that day.
“He knows that he could have turned to multiple other avenues than violence to protect his sister,” said Mr Torbett. “He jumped over a fence into the garden.”
Fennell’s drug use and other problems played a massive part in what happened. He was now at a crossroads. “He knows that he needs to change or he will end up serving a life sentence in instalments,” said Mr Torbett.
Fennell was jailed for 14 months and he was given a five-year restraining order.