A woman who attacked her elderly brother with three sticks of rhubarb claimed today that she had been "stitched up".

Margaret Porter, 50, of Tofts Farm, Newbiggin, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire admitted common assault at a court hearing in October.

Magistrates in Northallerton heard that she had seen her brother William, 72, reversing in his Land Rover in Askrigg in May last year. She claimed that he was laughing at her, so she went over to the vehicle's open window and threw the rhubarb at him. The blow left him with blurred vision in his left eye and needing painkillers.

Porter appeared at Northallerton Magistrates Court yesterday to be sentenced for the offence, but the case was adjourned for a hearing into a possible antisocial behaviour order.

Police want the order imposed to stop her from harassing other family members and people living nearby.

But in a series of outbursts at yesterday's hearing, Porter claimed that she was being harassed and that a number of cats in the area have been killed.

"I have had people harassing me when I come back from whist drives, people shining car lights through my windows," she said. "There is a lot of cats going missing.

"I have been stitched up so far and they are going to do the same thing. I am going to end up in prison. It is a load of rubbish." Xanthe Tait, prosecuting, said her behaviour was causing concern and fear among the community. She added: "It is affecting not just families in the area, it is affecting visitors."

Porter was bailed until the next hearing on March 17 on the condition that she does not approach, communicate or interfere with her brother.