MONTHS of emotional turmoil caused a grandmother to snap and take a hammer to the car and home of her son-in-law’s parents.

Marina Adams, from Starmer Crescent, Darlington, had spent months consoling her pregnant daughter over the breakdown of her marriage but finally lost it after her son-in-law kicked the girl in the stomach.

Estella Pengilly, defending said: “Mrs Adams is normally a right minded, good solid member of the community but she has been under an incredible amount of stress and it became too much for her.

“It was like a red mist had descended and she lost control.’’

Newton Aycliffe Magistrates heard that on May 29 this year Mrs Adams went to the home of her son-in-law’s parents in Darlington armed with a hammer.

She smashed three windows of a BMW car parked on the drive and proceeded to break the double glazed window of the front door of the house.

Laura Lax, prosecuting, said the incident had happened around 8.30pm and the victim had woken up to the sound of loud banging on the front door.

She told how the woman looked out of the window to see Mrs Adams with a hammer in her hand and she was racially abusive to her.

She said the victim’s husband arrived home at that point and was able to talk calmly to Mrs Adams.

In a statement read out to the court she said: “I haven’t been very well which is why I was in bed. I don’t know what would have happened if my husband hadn’t turned up. I feared for my life.’’

Mrs Pengilly told the court Mrs Adams had shown instant remorse and she had already paid for the damage she had caused.

She said: “She had never been in a court room and this is humiliating for her. She had offered restorative justice but this was turned down.

“She recognises that this is a serious matter and that she should not have reacted in this way.”

Mrs Adams pleaded guilty to criminal damage, using violence to enter a premises and racially aggravated harassment. She was fined £200 and ordered to pay £250 compensation. She was also told to pay £85 costs and £35 victim surcharge. She was told to pay the total of £565 at £20 per week.

A restraining order was also taken out forbidding Mrs Adams from contacting her daughter’s in-laws directly or indirectly or going within 50 metres of their home address.