Women hits neighbor, police officer with metre-long metal pole

Emily Gordon, 24, had no prior criminal record before getting in a public fist fight with a neighbour, apparently over a rumour. Magistrate Michael Holmes was baffled by the crime, he told the Glen Innes Local Court last week.

"This is just crazy behaviour, I can't believe it!" he said.

READ MORE:

On the night of September 11, Gordon attacked her neighbor while she climbed into a taxi, charging her and knocking her to the ground, holding her shirt and punching her in the face three times.

The fight, which took place in the open on Lewis Street, was so loud four people independently called police.

A taxi driver and a bystander stepped in to break up the fight, and she retreated into her unit.

But when police arrived to the scene, her neighbor charged her door and yelled abuse, banging on bins.

As police restrained the woman, Gordon charged out of her unit with a 1.2 metre long hollow metal pole used for a camping bed and whacked the neighbor repeatedly. One blow smacked a Glen Innes police officer by accident. The neighbor was later hospitalised but sustained no serious injuries.

Court documents say the pair had previously had an amicable relationship, but their relationship broke down over "apparent rumours that were spread".

Gordon's defence lawyer explained the crime as a stupid spontaneous act, which she was remorseful about. He said she wasn't heavily intoxicated at the time.

Convicted of affray and assaulting a police officer, she was given a two year conditional release order, with no conviction recorded.

She wrote a letter of apology to the officer and has since moved to Inverell - and told the court she wouldn't be back before the law.