FIVE years ago this week, a woman defended her actions as “harmless fun” after riding a horse into a supermarket as part of a craze that swept the internet.

In footage posted on Facebook, Inky Ralph was seen entering Tesco, in St Helen Auckland, Bishop Auckland, on the back of her horse, Harvey, much to the shock of staff and shoppers.

The stunt was a NekNomination – the name for a social network craze thought to have originated in Australia – involving friends nominating each other to do challenges before posting their exploits on the internet.

Miss Ralph, 21, said: “I think it is fairly safe as long as you take careful consideration into what you’re doing. It was just harmless fun.”

Also that week, the world’s fastest steam locomotive, The Mallard, returned up the main line to the North-East 75 years after it earned its title.

Pulled by its sister A4 locomotive, Union of South Africa, Mallard attracted admiring glances along the length of the line from York to Shildon as part of a historic exhibition.

It starred in the Great Goodbye exhibition as the last chance to see all six surviving A4 engines together before two of them depart for their North American homes.

Loco fan Tom Hutchinson, of Birtley, near Chester-le-Street, said: “I think it’s special because both came up together.

“Mallard is normally a static exhibit and it rarely moves, so this is as good as it gets for that engine.”

Meanwhile, animal sanctuary owner Paula Campbell was arrested on suspicion of assault during an attempt to regain her County Durham farm.

Paula Campbell, her daughter Jayne and four other supporters returned to Milkup Bank in Willington, County Durham, claiming that their eviction was unlawful.

But staff acting on behalf of Redstone Mortgage Company, who repossessed the farm, said their court order was a lawful declaration and called police.

And a first aid charity apologised after one of its ambulance drivers was spotted parking illegally to dash into a chip shop.

An eagle-eyed member of the public twice photographed the same St John Ambulance vehicle unlawfully parked on white zig-zag lines near a pelican crossing on the busy A690, in Langley Moor, near Durham City.

The woman who spotted the vehicle said: “The driver and passenger both went to the fish shop.”

“There are parking bays in the High Street, and to the rear of the fish shop is a large free car park.

“Therefore, I do not understand the need to park illegally.”

The woman sent the photos to the charity.