Hosepipe-wielding woman dressed as boy wearing blue latex gloves escapes jail term

A Scarborough woman who attacked a mother with a length of metal-ended hosepipe while dressed as a boy and wearing blue latex gloves, has escaped a prison term. Serena Moon, 36, left her victim bruised, a clump of hair pulled out, and scratched after the incident in Scarborough’s Rowan Close on May 2, last year, York Crown court heard. Moon, of Prospect Mount Road, had been found guilty by a York Crown Court jury earlier this year of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possessing the offensive weapon. She had admitted causing criminal damage by smashing three windows at the home of the victim and her partner.

Moon returned to the court for sentencing and had nine months’ imprisonment imposed but suspended for 18 months. She was also placed under 18 months supervision, ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid work and attend a specified activity group. The court also ordered to pay £240 compensation and the same amount in costs. The jury was told the victim’s two children – one of whom had been at home at the time – had been so upset by the incident outside their home they felt unsafe living and sleeping in there. Although Moon had never had any trouble with either the mother or her partner, she turned up bizarrely dressed and smashed their windows.



When the couple ran out to see what was happening, Moon, who had drunk two bottles of wine, motioned the woman’s partner forward shouting “Come on big man, come on”. She then produced the length of pipe from up her sleeve and attacked the woman so severely she suffered a laceration to her chest through her clothing. As the women then scuffled, Moon ripped hair from her victim’s head, before the partner was able to pull them apart. When arrested at the scene Moon denied all the offences, claiming she had not even been wearing the latex gloves found on her when the police arrived.

However she told the jury that she had been injured herself and frightened after being arrested, forgetting about the gloves which she used in the course of her work as a hairdresser. She added that because of a neighbour dispute between the couple and her friend, also a resident of Rowan Close, she had gone to the house to smash the windows. Adding that she didn’t really know why she had done it, and that she was scared of the woman’s partner, Moon claimed she attempted to run away after breaking the glass, but was caught and set upon by him. Patricia Doherty, mitigating, said that her client had had problems with a previous violent relationship, but was now getting her life back on track.