A BITTER family feud in Lochgelly led to a 50-year-old woman attacking a car with a baseball bat.

The car was being driven by the partner of the attacker’s brother and there were children in the vehicle.

As a result, Sally Ann McMillan, 50, of Newton Farm Cottage, Lochgelly, appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

She admitted that on August 18 last year,at Newton Farm, she struck the window of a car with a baseball bat and then pursued the vehicle while still holding the bat.

Depute fiscal Laura McManus said Kelly Hargreaves was in her car with her sister and children when the vehicle was attacked by McMillan.

“She then chased after the car as they drove away,” she added. “The background is a family dispute. Kelly Hargeaves is the partner of the accused’s brother.”

Defence solicitor Michael Foster said the farm steading had been purchased by his client’s parents. He said one cottage had been given to her and the other to her brother and that there had been a fall-out after their mother’s funeral.

He said that, before this incident, his client had been assaulted and her car vandalised causing damage worth £1,500.

He added that his client had the baseball bat with her that day to protect her pet dog from another dog. he said she felt that the car had been driven at her and reacted.

The parties involved continue to be next-door neighbours but there has been no reconciliation, the court was told. “There is not peace but perhaps it could be described as neutrality,” said the solicitor.

Sheriff Alastair Brown deferred sentence on McMillan until April 15 for her to be of good behaviour.