Council leader's husband, 74, punched and kicked neighbour

Council leader’s husband, 74, punched and kicked neighbour in fight at village war memorial after victim’s wife, 40, asked the pensioner to stop popping round to see her

Engineer Shaun Miller was punched and kicked by 74-year-old Richard Lanigan
It happened at a war memorial in the quiet North Yorkshire village of Easington
Lanigan is the husband of Redcar and Cleveland District Council leader Mary
He was later convicted of assault and criminal damage and fined over £2,300
Lisa claims Lanigan kept coming over to her home to see her and chat, offering her compliments on what she wore, asking if he could take her dog on a walk

The wife of a man who was beaten up by his OAP neighbour in front of his six-year-old daughter at a village war memorial has claimed how the feud began when she asked him to stop coming to her house to see her.

Mother-of-three Lisa Miller, 40, said she and husband Shaun, 38, have gone through ‘two years of hell’ since the dispute began with her their neighbour, 74-year-old Richard Lanigan, in the quiet village of Easington, North Yorkshire.

On August 15 last year, a court heard how engineer Shaun was punched and kicked by Lanigan, whose wife is Mary Lanigan, the leader of Redcar and Cleveland District Council. She also witnessed the fight.

Teesside Magistrates Court was shown footage of the moment Mr Miller was punched and kicked down the pathway of the cenotaph and surrounding garden, close to the couple’s home on Whitby Road, Easington.

Mrs Miller claimed how in 2019, two years after moving into the neighbourhood, Mr Lanigan was always over at their house striking conversations with her.

‘We moved to the village in 2017 and initially we loved it, it was very quiet, friendly and peaceful,’ she said.

‘But two years later over the garden fence I saw this man who was working in an area behind the war memorial. He approached and said his name was Mike and began talking.

‘From that day two years ago he was then around all the time wanting to chat.

Lisa Miller, 40, wife of a Shaun Miller, 38, who was beaten up by his OAP neighbour in front of his six-year-old daughter at a village war memorial, has claimed how the feud began when she asked him to stop coming to her house to see her

‘He turned up at my door asking if he could take my dog for a walk as his had died and began bringing our bins in without being asked.

‘He’d commented on what I was wearing a couple of times and though to some it would sound as though he was just being nice it made me feel uncomfortable.

‘When the pandemic struck I used that as a reason to ask him to stop coming and when I did that his face just fell. That’s when things go tstrange.

‘I’d planted some bushes on our property which got ripped out. I found them by the war memorial.’

Mrs Miller and her husband replanted the bushes but then received a letter.

She said: ‘I then got a hand delivered letter on Redcar and Cleveland Council headed note paper saying I had to remove the bushes.

‘The fact it was hand delivered seemed strange so I called the council and they appeared to know nothing about it.’

The dispute with Lanigan became entrenched and on the day of the assault the couple had simply wanted to show him and his wife an email that was central to the boundary row.

Mrs Miller said: ‘We’d been for an afternoon out and returned to see them as usual at the memorial.

‘Shaun simply wanted to show them the email but Mike Lanigan went crazy, punching and kicking him as our young daughter watched from the pavement.

‘It was shocking and unforgivable to use such violence, I hope we never have any dealings with him again.’

Magistrates were told the Lanigans had been carrying out maintenance work on the war memorial – described by villagers as being Mr Lanigan’s ‘baby’ – before a dispute between neighbours over leylandii trees, which had rumbled on for two years, suddenly exploded in an outburst of violence that was captured by CCTV cameras.

Richard Lanigan (pictured) was found guilty of assault after punching and kicking Shaun Miller at a war memorial in Easington, North Yorkshire

One villager said that Lanigan, a former miner, had devoted hours of his time to renovating the once neglected memorial but the dispute started when the Millers planted trees to border their property.

It sparked a boundary dispute between the Millers and Redcar and Cleveland Council who claimed that the leylandii trees the couple had planted were actually on council-owned land that was part of the memorial grounds.

The Millers were asked to take the trees out but it began an ongoing series of spats which culminated in the attack on Mr Miller, villagers claimed.

The court heard the assault had a devastating effect on Mr Miller, 38, his daughter and his wife, Lisa, who told JPs they lived in fear of Lanigan.

After an earlier trial, Lanigan was found guilty of assault and criminal damage after hurling plant pots at Mrs Miller’s Vauxhall Astra. This week, he was given a restraining order to keep away from the Miller family, which also covers the site of the war memorial, and ordered to pay more than £2,300.

The Millers, who are British-born but moved to Easington from their previous home in Texas, have a cottage directly next to the memorial.

They said their relationship with Lanigan was once friendly but soured over the years because they were constantly at loggerheads over the cenotaph.

The Millers felt they had no option but to erect a fence because Lanigan spent so much time at the memorial that they felt he was encroaching on their home by looking down into it.

Mrs Miller (pictured left, with her husband Shaun) claimed how in 2019, two years after moving into the neighbourhood, Mr Lanigan was always over at their house striking conversations with her

At his home in the village, Mike Lanigan said: ‘I don’t want to comment because anything I say reflects badly on Mary as the leader of the council and I don’t want that.

‘What has hurt me most is the restraining order which means I can’t go to continue all the hard work I have done on the war memorial because it takes me too close to the Millers’ home.

‘That hurt me more than the fine the court imposed.’

This week, Teesside magistrates were shown footage of Lanigan’s assault on Mr Miller.

He is seen punching and kicking Mr Miller along the plant-lined pathway to the memorial and out of the gate onto the main road while Mrs Lanigan, wearing a high vis jacket, follows her husband.

Mr Miller was knocked to the ground in the attack, which was captured on both CCTV and mobile phone footage, before being kicked several times by Lanigan after getting back to his feet.

Richard Lanigan’s wife Mary is the leader of Redcar and Cleveland District Council and witnessed her husband’s assault on Mr Miller

The Millers, the court heard, had sought to protect themselves from further attacks by building their fence higher.

Mrs Miller said she paid more than £1,500 to install panels to raise the height of her fence so Lanigan could not see her into her home, and also installed four security cameras to monitor her property boundary.

Prosecutor Jo Hesse asked magistrates to impose a restraining order on Lanigan after saying there had been ‘incidents and issues’ over a period of two years.

An emotional Mrs Miller read out a statement at Lanigan’s sentencing hearing which said said: ‘Since this assault on my husband and the harassment I have experienced at the hands of Mike Lanigan, there have been a number of factors which have affected my daily life.

‘I have had to watch as my husband has been in pain as a result of the assault. This resulted in the doctor diagnosing whiplash and prescribing him strong medication.

‘My daughter, who is six, was present with her father when he was assaulted; she has experienced nightmares, a panic attack and sleepless nights as a result of being in fear of Mike Lanigan.

‘She has also witnessed Mike Lanigan continuing to be present around our property boundary up to six times per week after the assault.’

Teesside Magistrates were shown footage of Lanigan punching and kicking Mr Miller along the plant-lined pathway

Mr Miller was knocked to the ground in the attack, which was captured on both CCTV and mobile phone footage, before being kicked several times by Lanigan after getting back to his feet

Mrs Miller, who has lived in the village since 2017 with her husband, said she had been left unable to walk her dog for a year because she did not feel safe.

She added: ‘Due to lies being told about the nature of the assault, I have received threats from people in the village. This has led to me installing a security chain on my door, a letterbox lock, and being in fear within my own home.

‘I am shocked, disgusted, hurt, disappointed and had my home life and enjoyment of my outdoor space ruined by this man. I have put up with his threatening stares whenever he sees me in my car, and even when my children are present on the way to school.

‘I am unsafe in my own village, and have had to rely on victim support on many occasions.’

Nick Woodhouse, representing Lanigan, said he had been ‘going about his business’ at the war memorial on the day of the assault and was with his wife at the time.

He said Lanigan, who had no previous criminal convictions, had permission from Redcar and Cleveland Council to be on the council-owned land on which the memorial was sited, to allow him to carry out maintenance work.

Mr Woodhouse argued that a restraining order would potentially prevent him from carrying out any further work at the site, which is adjacent to the Millers’ home.

He added: ‘This is not someone who is regularly before the courts. It is an isolated, one-off incident.’

Chairman of the bench Graham Walton fined Lanigan £1,100 while also ordering him to pay £500 compensation for the assault and a further £300 for the criminal damage. Lanigan must also pay costs and surcharges of £410, bringing the full payout to £2,310.

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