A father who brutally assaulted a teaching assistant in the street and knocked her unconscious after she told off his son in the playground has walked free from court.
Assailant Marius Feneck, 28, waited outside the boy’s primary school for Lesley-Ann Noel to leave after work before following her to her car and launching a vicious revenge attack. She suffered cuts to her head and lips, swelling to her face and a shoulder injury after being found unconscious in the street by a passer-by who raised the alarm.
Feneck’s son had got into a fight at lunchtime and been disciplined by Noel, who was on playground duty at Glenbrook Primary School in Clapham, Inner London crown court heard. Noel, 47, who has been unable to return to work since the assault on October 6, said the emotional trauma had left her too scared even to take her own nine-year-old daughter to school.
She is considering an appeal to the attorney general for a stronger sentence after Feneck was spared jail despite admitting assault causing actual bodily harm. He was instead given a 12-month sentence suspended for one year.
Noel told the Standard: “I’m very disappointed in the system and I don’t feel justice has been served. What kind of a message does it send to stop others doing this when someone walks free?
“I’m frightened to leave my building. I can’t go back to work and am really struggling to move on. I think about it every day. It has affected me and my daughter. I’ve suffered quite severely from this unprovoked attack and don’t want it to happen to anyone else.
“As a teaching assistant you go to work to help children. You don’t expect to end up in a situation like this and if you do you should get justice. I will consider appealing to the attorney general.” She has been undergoing therapy to help her deal with the trauma of the attack.
Her brother Roger said she was struggling to cope with what happened and told of his disbelief at the sentence. He added: “This man is on the street. She is a single mother and this hell has been brought upon her.” The court was told that Feneck’s attack was the culmination of his campaign against the school, which had earlier been forced to ban him from its grounds.
His partner had gone there at 3.15pm to complain about the way her son had been treated. At 4.30pm, the teaching assistant was walking to her car when she saw Feneck cycling towards her — “menacing and after me”.
He confronted her before knocking her out. She said: “I don’t know how many times he hit me. I fell unconscious and was found by someone walking past.”