Mum tells of terror

at attack on home A MOTHER of two told of her terror as her home was attacked, she was surrounded by a gang, dubbed a whore and threatened with an iron bar, allegedly by her former next door neighbour's son.

Christine Lorente said she ran back to her house after a phone booth she was using to alert police was bombarded with rocks, and claimed Michael Hoyle, 20, told her he was going to make her look pretty, smashed her windows and kicked open a wrought iron gate.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Mrs Lorente had earlier given evidence in two trials for Philip Warburton, another neighbour on Crossley Grove, Accrington, where she used to live. He had been convicted of firing an air rifle at the defendant's stepfather's caravan and ramming his car. Mrs Lorente, who denied in cross-examination having had an affair with disabled Mr Warburton, said Hoyle told her she ought to be "put down."

Hoyle, of Crossley Grove, denies affray last October and claims he was not involved in the trouble.

Mrs Lorente, now of Chestnut Grove, told the jury she had lived next door to the defendant's father for a year at Crossley Grove with her husband and two children. In May 1998 she moved to her new home and had not seen Hoyle except when he was hanging around on street corners with gangs, she said. Last October 15, she was watching television alone when she heard a thud from the back of the house as if a glass pane had been smashed. When she went into the kitchen, she saw somebody running out of the back garden, she said.

She ran after them and half way up Willows Lane the person stopped, out of breath. She said a gang then started to form a semi-circle around her. She dashed to a phone box to call police as the booth was bombarded with rocks.

She went on: "It seemed like a lifetime. I told the operator what was going on.

"I remember saying I couldn't breathe and I had to walk home because I had left the house open." As she walked home, she claimed, the gang followed, prodding her.

Mr Mark Stuart, defending, said Hoyle's mother and stepfather had been saying Mrs Lorente was having an affair with Mr Warburton in 1997, and were going to tell his wife. Mrs Lorente denied having had an affair with Mr Warburton but agreed she gave evidence on his behalf twice. The disputes between Mr Warburton and the defendant's mother and stepfather were nothing to do with Hoyle.

Mr Stuart: "Let me suggest during a conversation with Mr Warburton and another man about this night that you said you weren't sure who was the person who had done these things?"

Mrs Lorente: "Definitely not."

Mr Stuart: "Let me suggest to you that the defendant's brother Sean Hoyle is the spitting image of his brother Michael."

The complainant: "No."

(Proceeding)