Kinross mum knocked down woman with car after challenging her to fight

A mum reversed her car into a woman walking children home from school after challenging her to a fight.

Danielle Smith was knocked down after being struck by the open passenger door of an Audi driven by rival Kristi Morton.

A jury heard how the two women had been involved in a long-running feud.

Morton, 31, was charged by police with assaulting Ms Smith to her injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of her life.

However following a trial at Perth Sheriff Court, a jury found the charge not proven.

They instead found her guilty of an alternative charge of driving dangerously by accelerating and then reversing at speed, colliding with Ms Smith.

Morton, of Dalwhamie Street, Kinross, has been banned from the road and will be sentenced next month.

‘Trying to get a rise out of us’

The trial heard that Ms Smith and Morton were involved in an earlier altercation on Greenpark, Kinross, on the afternoon of August 24 2022.

Ms Smith told the trial she wriggled out of her jacket while Morton pulled the hood off.

“She was just going off her head, pure arms flailing about,” she said.

“She just wanted to fight with me.”

Morton said that she was the one who was assaulted.

She told jurors she was left with a “face gushing with blood”.

The jury found the allegation Morton had assaulted Ms Smith at this location not proven.

‘Totally wiped out’

At about 3pm, Ms Smith was walking down Station Road with a mum who had collected her child from nursery.

She said Morton’s white Audi “cut over to us”.

“I heard someone shouting,” she said.

“They were just trying to get a rise out of us.

“She was just wanting a fight, the same way she was earlier.”

Ms Smith said they walked on but then heard “a loud revving sound.”

“I’m guessing I was hit by the car door because it totally wiped me out.

“It struck my lower back and put me completely to the floor.”

Ms Smith suffered scrapes and bruises, with scars on her knees and hip.

Her iPhone was smashed and clothes damaged.

“It was a year to the day that my brother was killed in a car accident, so it was very traumatic for me,” she said.

In her evidence, Morton claimed Ms Smith had opened the car door as they drove past and tried to get inside and punch her.

Morton’s front seat passenger, best friend Shannon McGurk, 27, was also accused of the same charge of assaulting Ms Smith to the danger of her life.

She was found not guilty midway through the trial.

Breach of bail

Morton wept in the dock as the jury delivered its verdict.

As well as the dangerous driving charge, she was found guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, by challenging Ms Smith to a fight and acting in an aggressive manner towards her.

She was further found guilty of breaching bail conditions by approaching Ms Smith at Giacopazzi’s store on April 6 2023.

Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: “From the evidence we have heard it was a very short distance that the reversing manoeuvre took place over.

“The ladies and gentlemen of the jury have come to the conclusion that there was no obvious danger to life or serious injury.”

He said: “She drove when she should have made sure that the vehicle door was closed.”

Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC deferred sentence for background reports.

She disqualified Morton from driving in the interim and told her: “You have been found guilty of serious offences.”

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