A family who were subjected to a campaign of abuse by their neighbour before she launched a vicious spade attack are living in fear that she could return to ‘finish the job she intended’ after she was spared jail.
Mother-of-three Catherine ‘Cat’ Lloyd, 44, pounced from behind her gate and smashed her victim over the top of the head in a narrow alleyway between their homes in a late-night attack his family say he was lucky to come out of alive.
In new CCTV from the night obtained by the Daily Mail, she then smashes him over the head with a wooden bat with the help of her ex-boyfriend whom she had called over to join in.
The horrifying double attack, caught on CCTV, followed a three-year campaign of abuse against the victim’s grandparents-in-law in which she made 1am death threats, branded them ‘paedophiles’ and ‘murderers’ online and even threw bricks at them.
Cambridgeshire Police said Lloyd struck her neighbour, in his 20s, over the head with a spade in Peterborough on May 14 2023 after a ‘long-running dispute’, leaving him with a large gash to the head which required hospital treatment.
But his grandparents-in-law, who live next door to Lloyd, told the Daily Mail today: ‘This is not a long-running dispute. It’s not “she had a go, we had a go”. There’s no tennis involved. It’s her just persecuting us for her own enjoyment.
‘We were subjected to a hate campaign and we have no idea why. It’s been hell, it’s been purgatory. She’s a calculated, scheming woman.’
Lloyd – who has two young twin girls and a teenage boy – admitted grievous bodily harm without intent and was sentenced to 10 months in jail this week, but she has been released back onto the streets due to time she has served in custody.
The terrified pensioners, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have now installed an iron gate in the passageway, explaining: ‘We are having to safeguard ourselves from the possibility of an absolute nutjob coming back to finish the job that she intended.’
Pictured for the first time, this is mother-of-three Catherine Lloyd who attacked her neighbour over the head with a spade
This is the moment Lloyd smashed her neighbour over the head with a spade at around 930pm
Half an hour after the spade attack, Lloyd and her ex-partner, Aaron Hockey, attacked the victim again – this time with a wooden bat. Hockey first attacked the victim’s mother and then turned on him when he came outside
This is the alleyway where Lloyd attacked her neighbour. On April 18 2023, three weeks before the attack, she could be heard in the clip above saying: ‘Do you have a preference? I’ve got a spade, I’ve got garden shears or I’ve got a rake’
We can reveal today the ‘dispute’ stemmed from a random letter that Lloyd – who had been completely fine with them when she first moved in back in 2019 – put through their letterbox on May 27, 2020.
In the strongly worded letter, Lloyd claimed her neighbours had left ‘broken roof tiles’ and ‘tree trimmings’ in her garden and threatened to report them to the police.
The next day, the husband and wife unsuccessfully attempted to engage in a ‘reasonable discussion’ with Lloyd so instead wrote a letter back to her, which she refused to open.
In the letter, they explained external contractors had completed work on their bathroom roof three months prior and all the old tiling had been removed with any debris swept up. They also attempted to call round to clear up the small amount of tree clippings that had fallen into Lloyd’s garden but got no answer.
‘Then all of a sudden she just turned,’ the couple explained. ‘To this day we don’t know what reason, but that’s when the abuse started.
‘She was shouting at 1am in the morning that she was going to kill us. I was frightened of going out my front door.’
Lloyd returned the sealed letter back to her neighbours, but wrote on top: ‘Do anything to hurt or harm my children and I will go to the police!’
‘From there on, we were called paedophiles, we were called murderers, you name it. We had to get cameras put in. She was shouting it over the fence. For nearly two years I didn’t dare go out our back gate because she’d be there all the time waiting for me.
‘We had the police out so many times and we told them she’s like a ticking time bomb. You just don’t know when she’s going to kick off.’
Mother-of-three Catherine Lloyd (pictured) subjected her neighbours to a campaign of abuse
CCTV shows Lloyd, 44, walking towards the victim with a spade over her shoulder
The victim fought back and pushed the spade away from his face in an attempt to stop Lloyd after she hit him
Half an hour later, Hockey attacked the neighbour, this time with a wooden baton
Lloyd then picked up the baton which had fallen on the floor and started attacking her neighbour
The pensioners say they lived next to the neighbour from hell. Lloyd is seen here putting her middle finger up at the camera while her children walk in front
On July 17 2022, the family claim that Lloyd threw bricks into the garden while they were having a barbeque
In social media posts seen by Daily Mail, Lloyd posted their faces and names online, calling them ‘sex pests, child abusers and creepy ass stalkers’.
When their grandson-in-law stuck up for them one day, Lloyd turned and ‘suddenly hated him’ as well, shouting abuse at him and issuing death threats.
They explained: ‘If she mouthed off, he would give her as much as back. That’s what she didn’t like. Our policy was to ignore her and it made it worse. His policy was you bite me, I’ll bite you back. That made her worse too, you couldn’t win.’
In one terrifying moment in 2021, Lloyd allegedly pushed her pensioner neighbour off her bike, leaving her with bruises all over her arm. She was arrested but there was ‘insufficient evidence’ for her to be charged.
In another, on July 17 2022, she threw bricks into the garden of the neighbours’ granddaughter and husband while they were all having a barbeque.
The Daily Mail has obtained a dossier of CCTV and photos which shows Lloyd’s ‘calculated’ plot to attack the family.
On April 18, 2023, a camera picked her up making a chilling threat, shouting: ‘Do you have a preference? I’ve got a spade, I’ve got garden shears or I’ve got a rake.’
Just three weeks later, on May 14, she stormed out her back gate at around 9.30pm and struck her victim over the head with a spade.
The victim’s grandmother-in-law, who saw the horror unfold before her eyes, said: ‘He was bleeding a lot, it was so vicious.’
Her partner added: ‘She sprung up from behind the gate, she’d been waiting there with a spade in hand waiting for him to come back round. Then she’s gone “there he is” and lunged at him with a spade. If that isn’t with intent, what is?
‘She hit him with the flat of the spade. If she’d hit him with the edge, he wouldn’t be here. The lad would not be here now, guaranteed.’
Police have only released footage of the spade attack, but the Mail can reveal how the violence did not stop there.
Moments later, Lloyd rang up her ex-partner, the father of her children, who quickly arrived at the scene armed with a wooden baton.
CCTV shows Aaron Hockey manhandling the victim’s mother while he was inside recovering from his head wound. When he heard the commotion, he came outside and was smashed around the head by Hockey before Lloyd joined in.
Hockey was handed a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years, for possession of an offensive weapon, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray.
In other CCTV obtained by the Daily Mail, Lloyd is seen putting her middle finger up at her neighbours’ camera while her children walk in front of her, while in another she throws her parking ticket on the floor.
‘To say she’s got no respect for the law would be an understatement,’ they said.
The neighbours, who have lived in their house for 30 years, say they had ‘never encountered’ anyone like Lloyd before, adding: ‘We weren’t sure what she was capable of and that’s the scary bit.’
They added: ‘She’d used this tenuous excuse that we were all paedophiles and after her children to exact violence and threats and assault us.
‘It’s a total fabrication. It’s so degenerate, it’s like she was provoking us and looking for a reaction. When she didn’t get it, it made her worse. It’s about the worst thing you can call a person, a paedophile.’
Although Lloyd has finally been convicted two years later, they say it has brought ‘no relief’.
‘It’s such a deflation that we’ve waited all this time, it’s finally gone to court, we had all the evidence and we just think where’s the justice in that?
‘Until the bailiffs come round, she’s still got the keys to the place. What’s to stop her coming round?
‘She’s not even in prison anymore. There’s a restraining order but that’s not stopped her before. There’s physically nothing to stop her running back again.’
Lloyd’s neighbour on the other side was more sympathetic to the situation, telling the Daily Mail: ‘I feel sorry for her. She needs help. She was always very friendly and helpful. She would offer to do my shopping and made me a Christmas dinner.
‘She’s got lovely twins.
‘We were good friends for quite a while but then she cut herself off. I think mental problems started getting to her.
‘She was friendly, helpful, bright, she could be funny.’
Lloyd was jailed for ten months on July 31 at Peterborough Crown Court after admitting grievous bodily harm without intent. But she was released from custody due to time spent on remand.
DCI Lloyd Davis said: ‘Catherine Lloyd’s behaviour in this case was completely unacceptable.
‘Irrespective of any ongoing dispute, violence like this is not the answer. I’m pleased the victim can now move on.’
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