'Granny knocked out' in school row

ALLEGED VICTIM: Faye Irene Essery.

Queensland Times

A GRANDMOTHER was knocked unconscious in the middle of an Ipswich school when a row between two families blew up on the first day of term, a court heard yesterday.

Faye Irene Essery, 61, was dropping off her grandson at Silkstone State School when she realised the boy had been put in the same class as the son of Scott Trevor Morris.

There was bad blood between the families following a failed business partnership and a heated row took place outside a year 4 classroom full of children.

After insults were hurled, 33-year-old Morris pushed Mrs Essery. She fell to the ground, bashing her head on a wall.

“I hit the wall and I went down,” Mrs Essery said.

“When I woke up there was blood pouring down my face.”

Her head wound needed seven stitches and Morris was charged with serious assault after she reported the incident to police.

Ipswich Magistrates Court was told the ugly confrontation took place on January 27.

Mrs Essery told the court her son, Shane Essery, had been Morris's partner in a in a steel fabrication business until their relationship broke down two-and-a-half years ago.

She had asked Silkstone State School's deputy principal not to put the two men's children in the same class in 2008 and said she was upset to realise her grandson had been placed in the same class as Morris's daughter after all.

The children had been involved a schoolyard fight two years ago.

Ms Essery told the court she was outside the classroom complaining to a friend about the situation when Morris approached her.

“He must have heard me,” she said.

“He went berserk ... he called me every name under the sun.”

The court heard Morris' wife, Selina, then walked over and pointed her finger into Mrs Essery's face and said: “Don't talk about my daughter like that.”

Ms Essery said she pointed her finger back at Mrs Morris and her husband then shoved her.

Crying in the witness stand, Mrs Essery told the court: “He said 'Don't you hit my wife' and he just pushed me.”

Mother Dayna Broadway was talking with other mums outside the classroom at the time and saw the push.

“It was like a football shove,” she said.

But defence lawyer Mike Kelly argued that Mrs Essery had been the one “dishing out the abuse” and had actually taken a swing at Mrs Morris.

“You approached him,” he told Mrs Essery. “You were the one who started it.”

Taking the stand, Morris also claimed that Mrs Essery was the one behaving aggressively.

He said he thought she was going to push his wife and child down the stairs outside the classroom.

“Faye was so worked up I thought she was going to keep going with it,” he said.

Morris said he had pushed Mrs Essery after she had lunged at his wife.

“That's when I pushed her - to get her away from Selina.”

He said she only fell over because she had tripped over a child behind her and that she immediately got up and starting yelling “I've been bashed, call the police!”

Morris pleaded not guilty to serious assault of a person 60 years and older.

The summary trial continues before Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist today.