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Maisie makes a stand

Annette Lord
4/ 7/2008

AN 83-YEAR-old great grandma spat at and abused by a teenage girl has spoken out in the hope of inspiring others to refuse to live in fear.

Terrified Maisie Jones was determined not to be intimidated and kept a diary of the abuse she suffered for two years at the hands of Sinead Duffy, 14.

Now the out-of-control teen has been hit with a two-year Asbo banning her from streets around her home in Torksey Walk, Higher Blackley, because of her campaign of terror towards OAPs.

Maisie - who has 13 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren - suffered broken windows and foul language from cider-swilling Sinead, leader of a gang of teenage lads.

They gathered outside her home at up to 4am, keeping Maisie awake with their booze-fuelled antics.

On one occasion Maisie, who has angina and heart problems, was forced to take the batteries out of her doorbell because the group kept ringing it and endured three hours of them banging on her windows.

She has been confronted by Sinead holding garden shears menacingly at her and was poked in the back and stomach with the end of a litter picker as she returned home from bingo.

Maisie said: "She was trying to get hold of the back of my coat. If I had fell down the steps, I wouldn't have been alive at the bottom.

"She used to come up behind me trying to scare me. I would do a big detour to avoid her. I couldn't wait to get home and lock the door.

"All the family have been ill through the stress of it all. It's been like living a nightmare.

"It is going to take a long time to recover but I'm determined to. I have lived in this house 55 years and brought my children up here."

Sinead, who used to be a pupil at Our Lady's Sports College but no longer attends lessons, is now banned from Munn Road, Acretop Road and Liverton Drive, Blackley, unless she is accompanied by her mother, father, or elder sister, and then only to visit relatives.

The teenager was told by the judge who sentenced her at Manchester Magistrates Court that she should be ashamed of what she had done.

District Judge Duncan Birrell said: "It is an appalling thing that you did, assaulting an 83-year-old woman.

"You should feel ashamed of yourself, you should cherish the elderly."

The teenager's parents, Julie and John Duffy, were also given 12-month parenting orders.

Maisie said: "There's no parental control.

"She's uncontrollable and if it had been me with one of my children or grandchildren I would have dragged them indoors and given them a dressing down."

But she added: "Somebody's got to take a stand, it's no use being frightened.

"If no-one speaks out they will just get away with it and keep on doing it."

OTHER pensioners in the area have also suffered Sinead Duffy's vile tongue and drunken antics but were too frightened to be named.

One said: "She's made my life a misery and done a lot of damage. She's leader of a gang - all lads, some younger and some older. She'd sit in the communal gardens next to the flats on Acre Top drinking cider with them and ripping TV wires out of the walls. No-one would go out and confront her because they would feel intimidated."

Another said: "She doesn't seem to like anyone over the age of 21. She's set fire to a bin at the flats.

"A lot of people saw a lot of things but were frightened of speaking out. It's a lot quieter now but we'll have to wait and see.