A PENSIONER from Pontypool has been fined more than £450 after he punched his female neighbour in the mouth and verbally assaulted her wife.

Frederick Powell, 76, admitted a charge of common assault at Newport Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after the incident on June 12 this year.

Powell, of Beechwood Walk, Trevethin, returned home and parked next to a grassy area near to his house.

His neighbour, Laura Edmunds, approached the car and politely asked him to move as children were playing on the grass area.

The court heard how Powell threatened to fight her before calling her obscene names.

Mrs Edmunds’ wife, Kirsty, then approached the car and asked whether he could move, but the court heard how Powell said: “Is that a man or a woman?”

Powell then grabbed her right arm and pulled her partially into the car through the open window, before punching her in the left side of her mouth. He then drove off.

District Judge Richard Williams ordered Powell to pay a fine of £465.

Judge Williams told Powell: “Quite what you thought you were doing when you got yourself into this situation I don’t know. You behaved disgracefully.”

Powell’s defence told the court how the pensioner is an unwell man, suffering from bronchitis, emphysema, vibration white finger and has recently had an operation for liver cancer.

But Judge Williams said: “He lost his temper. There’s no justification for that.”