Warning: This story contains graphic details some readers might find distressing.

A woman has been jailed for over seven years after she attacked an elderly amputee at his Harrogate home.

Eleanor Chalmers, 47, dished out two savage beatings while in a highly “intoxicated” state at the man’s home on Bramham Drive.

She attacked the disabled victim with a knife, hit him over the head with a wooden ornament and his own crutch, smashed up his bedroom and moved his wheelchair to the other side of the room so he had to crawl on his hands and knees to retrieve it – all while kicking and stamping on him.

Prosecutor Kelly Clarke told York Crown Court that in one incident, Chalmers dragged a bread knife across the victim’s leg, causing a cut deep enough to need stapling in hospital.

She said that Chalmers and the elderly victim had been friends for about 15 years and had previously been kind to one another.

However, on June 25 last year, Chalmers walked into his home in a “somewhat erratic” and paranoid state, shouting about “cameras all over the walls of his property”.

She left but then returned about half an hour later in a highly drunken and possibly drugged state, “asking about the cameras” again.

“She walked into the kitchen and took a bread knife from a drawer and pointed it at (the victim) and then put it down on his leg and pulled it back, causing a cut to his leg,” said Ms Clarke.

Chalmers then hit him over the head with an “object”. The victim recalled little of the attack after being hit over the head and he later discovered bruises on his arms.

The victim didn’t report the incident at the time and cleaned up his wounds himself. However, he did tell friends about the attack and news “travelled around the estate”.

A month later, at about midnight on July 26, the victim was in bed when he heard Chalmers shouting through his letterbox.

She returned about half an hour later and this time the victim opened the door to find her standing on his doorstep with a bottle of fizzy white wine, berating him for his amputated leg.

“She was drinking from the bottle and she came inside,” said Ms Clarke.

She then hit him over the head with an “object” which the victim, whose head was bleeding, “assumed to be either the bottle of wine or a wooden ornament”. She then went into his bedroom and “smashed it up”.

“He crawled across the floor to try to get his wheelchair,” added Ms Clarke.

Chalmers then left with the victim’s Google Pixel phone, a bottle of his Spanish red wine and his tobacco tin, which were later found outside the house, presumably dropped by Chalmers in her intoxicated state.

The named victim, who was “covered in blood”, was treated in hospital where he had his wound stapled and other minor treatment. He was kept in overnight.

When he returned the following morning, he found his door smashed.

“There was smashed glass all over his wheelchair ramp from his recycling box and the front-door window had been smashed,” said Ms Clarke.

Chalmers had evidently been back to his home to resume the wrecking spree while he was in hospital.

Second victim

The following day, in the early hours of July 27, a named woman was asleep at her flat on nearby Eavestone Grove, Harrogate, when she heard a “horrendous crashing sound” which she believed was coming from the communal front door.

She was so scared she stayed in her bedroom and called the police, but then she heard a “third crash”, again appearing to come from the front door.

When officers arrived, they found the woman’s living-room window had been smashed, beneath which was a terracotta plant pot. They also found a bottle of Spanish red wine and a mobile phone, which had been stolen from the first victim. 

Chalmers was arrested about a week later and charged with two counts of wounding with intent, two counts of damaging property and one count of theft.

She initially denied all offences apart from the theft, only to plead guilty to all matters a week before the trial was due to be held. She appeared for sentence today (May 1) after being remanded in custody.

In a statement read out by the prosecution, the male victim said he no longer felt safe in his home, struggled to sleep and had panic attacks and night terrors about the attacks.

He said that now Chalmers was in prison, he could “sit and watch TV with my door open so my cats can come and go” and without having to worry about Chalmers coming back to “hurt me”.

The female victim, who has a hearing impairment, said: “I truly thought my life was in danger.”

Chalmers, from Harrogate but of no fixed address, had a raft of previous convictions including shoplifting and assaulting police officers.

Defenant's life 'riddled' with substance abuse

Defence barrister Susannah Proctor said that Chalmers’ life had been “riddled” with alcohol and drug abuse for many years, and she had suffered from “self-induced” paranoia.

She said that having sobered up after being remanded in prison, Chalmers was upset about the way she had treated the male victim who had shown her “kindness and support” over the years and helped her kick her heroin habit, only for her to turn to alcohol and crack-cocaine.

Ms Proctor said that Chalmers had “spent the last 20 years committing low-level offences to fund her addiction”, which she used as a coping mechanism for past traumas in her life.

Judge Simon Hickey described Chalmers’ offences as “mean” and said that her psychological difficulties didn’t reduce her culpability because they were partly induced by her drink and drug abuse.

Chalmers was jailed for seven years and four months.

The judge also made a 10-year restraining order banning Chalmers from contacting the male victim and going to various addresses in Harrogate including Bramham Drive, Harewood Road and Bewerley Road.