A WOMAN used her crutch to batter another female who had accused her of having bad breath in an Inverkeithing shop.

Corrie Johnston repeatedly struck Anne Wilson with the crutch outside the shop in Fraser Avenue.

The victim appeared in the court wearing a metal apparatus on her arm and claimed the attack had worsened a previous injury.

After trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Johnston, 25, of Fraser Avenue, Inverkeithing, was found guilty of assaulting Ms Wilson, 49, by repeatedly striking her with a crutch on the head and body to her injury in that street.

She had admitted a separate charge that on October 28, at Wemyss Street, Rosyth, she behaved in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing, making threats of violence and acting in an aggressive manner towards police officers.

Ms Wilson told the court she had regarded Johnston as a friend prior to this incident.

She said Johnston was already in the local store when she went there at 7.55pm on the night of the incident.

“She came towards me in close face contact. I asked her to take her face away as her breath smelled,” she told the court.

“When I went outside, I was attacked from the back with a crutch. I got hit over the head with a crutch and was knocked to the ground.

“Then I was battered with the crutch numerous times. Corrie was striking down hard all over my head and body.”

Ms Wilson said she suffered a five-inch cut to her head and later required surgery to her arm.

Dean Crawford, 24, now of Rosyth, was living in Fraser Avenue at the time. He told the court he looked from his window and saw the two females grappling before Anne Wilson was thrown to the ground.

He said Johnston then picked up her crutch and started hitting her with it.

Johnston told the court she had been acting in self-defence, claiming she had been “punched in the mouth” by Ms Wilson as she left the shop.

She said she needed the crutch for walking as she had nerve problems in her spine.

Sheriff Charles MacNair found Johnston guilty and called for reports. Johnston will return to court for sentencing on October 23.