A pensioner who tried to run over his neighbour but ended up mowing down his wife instead has been jailed, reports Metro.
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Michael Goodenough, 73, reversed his white Mercedes at Michelle Palmer but accidentally knocked down his wife Lynda, 72. She was rushed to hospital where she was treated for a broken spine following the incident in July 2019.
Goodenough was arrested and jailed for 15 months at Warwick Crown Court on Friday after he admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Just going off his mugshot, are we sure it was an accident?
The father-of-three lived next door to Mrs Palmer for 30 years but they fell out in 1994 when she built a wall between their properties in Coventry.
On the day of the incident, Goodenough deliberately blocked an alleyway between their homes with his car, and lost the plot when Mrs Palmer began filming him with her phone.
The pensioner reversed slowly at Mrs Palmer who was ‘seen pressing her hands against the rear window’ as it forced her backwards.
His wife then came out to speak to her husband before walking behind the car.
Prosecutor David Jackson describes what happened next:
As his wife walked back towards Mrs Palmer, Goodenough suddenly reversed while she was behind the car, knocking her to the ground and going over her.
Goodenough then stormed back to his home, leaving his wife to be tended by their neighbours who called an ambulance. Yes, you read that right. He reversed over his wife, then went back into the house as his neighbours helped his wife and called an ambulance. Amazing.
Goodenough’s presumably long-suffering wife had CT and MRI scans which revealed she had broken one of her vertebrae and shoulder blades.
Judge Peter Cooke told him:
It is now 22 months since this sorry episode in which your wife suffered significant and lasting injury. ‘In the course of submissions it was conceded that some harm was intended.
You tried to reverse your car into the lady next door and hurt her, and you ended up running over your own wife and causing her a crush fracture to her spine.
You did not just take a risk that you would hurt Mrs Palmer by driving recklessly, you intended to do so. That is why to prison you must go.
Welp, we should just be thankful we don’t have mass ownership of guns in this country because it sounds like Michael Goodenough would have gone full-on Rambo mode on the whole neighbourhood. Although if that were the case maybe he would have at least hit his targets instead of running down his poor wife and breaking her spine. Pretty amazing she’s not his ex-wife by now to be honest.
For the 81-year-old pensioner who joined a gang because he was lonely, click HERE.