This is the moment a pensioner pushes a dad to the ground and punches and kicks him in front of his six-year-old daughter.
Shaun and Lisa Miller moved into their home in Easington, North Yorkshire, in 2017, hoping to raise their three children in a ‘quiet village’.
One day Lisa met 74-year-old Richard Lanigan, who goes by the name Mike, while he was doing maintenance work in the war memorial adjacent to the family’s house.
The pair chatted and all seemed friendly enough, but Lisa said Lanigan kept coming around – almost every day – and things turned ‘sour’ when she asked him to ease up on the visits.
Lisa said: ‘When the pandemic struck I used that as a reason to ask him to stop coming and when I did that his face just fell.’
The family felt targetted by Lanigan throughout 2020 and for most of 2021, finding their bushes ripped out and left at the war memorial.
Their car was also left damaged by flower pots hurled over the fence. Things came to ahead on August 15 last year when Lanigan attacked Shaun in the war memorial.
CCTV footage shows the pensioner pushing the dad onto the floor and moving to kick him while he lay there.
Shaun was able to get up before Lanigan landed any blows but then the attacker pushed, punched and kicked him right onto the main road.
All the while, Lanigan’s wife Mary, leader of Redcar and Cleveland District Council, tried to stop her husband.
Lisa told Teesside Magistrates Court that the violence has since had an effect on the family’s daily lives.
She explained how difficult it has been to watch her husband be in pain and be put onto strong medication for it.
She also said her daughter, who watched the whole saga, has nightmares, panic attacks and sleepless nights sometimes.
Lisa added: ‘I am shocked, disgusted, hurt, disappointed and had my home life and enjoyment of my outdoor space ruined by this man.
‘I have put up with his threatening stares whenever he sees me in my car, and even when my children are present on the way to school.’
The family have spent more than £1,500 on raising the height of their fence so Lanigan could not see into their home.
They have also installed security cameras, a security chain on the front door and a letterbox lock.
Lisa was left so shaken she was unable to walk her dog for a whole year. She added: ‘I am unsafe in my own village, and have had to rely on victim support on many occasions.’
Lanigan’s defence lawyer said his client was merely ‘going about his business’ in the war memorial with his wife on the day of the fight.
‘This is not someone who is regularly before the courts. It is an isolated, one-off incident,’ they said.
Lanigan was made the subject of a restraining order making it illegal for him to go near the Miller family and this includes the war memorial. He was also ordered to pay out £2,310 in fines and charges.
He told the Daily Mail he would not comment on the case because of the impact it would have on his wife as the leader of the local council.
Lanigan said the restraining order has ‘hurt him more than the fine’ because he cannot ‘continue all the hard work done on the war memorial’.
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