Sister Batters Brother To Ground During Family's Day Trip To The Capital

Sibling violence broke out yet again during a Lowestoft family's trip to London, which ended with the sister battering her brother to the ground in front of a crowd of onlookers outside Victoria Station.

Voluntary charity worker Caole Ann Watlow, 28, of Whiting Road, Oulton pleaded guilty to assaulting Paul Shackell, 33, in Buckingham Palace Road on October 22, last year and was sentenced to nine months probation, which includes anger management sessions.

“This was a very unpleasant incident that lasted quite a long time,” bench chairwoman Valerie Gorter told Watlow at Hammersmith Magistrates Court. “We understand you and your brother have a history of aggression and conflict with each other that has to end now.”

Prosecutor Miss Helen Clutton said: “The victim is Miss Watlow's brother. They live in Suffolk and were visiting London on the day of the offence.

“They arrived outside Victoria Station and Miss Watlow accused her brother of taking her train ticket.

“The dispute attracted the attention of a security guard and members of the public who witnessed Miss Watlow pulling him onto the floor, hitting him and kicking him as he lay there without fighting back.

“Mr. Shackell sustained a cut above his left eye.”

The court heard Mr. Shackell was convicted of assaulting his sister in 2007 and 2008, on the first occasion punching her in the face several times and pulling her hair and a year later punching her in the forehead.

He was cleared of punching her in the face last year and Watlow herself was cautioned in 2000 for a street assault with a knife on her brother when he received grazes.

She told the magistrates: “Me, my mum and brother were picking up a family member and my brother was drunk and kept going on and on all the way there through the journey.

“I asked for the tickets back and he strangled me and that's when I over-reacted and hit him. I didn't pull him to the floor, he fell over.”

Watlow, who only admitted the offence on the day of the trial after initially pleading not guilty, was also ordered to pay £150 costs and a £60 victim surchage.