A peer’s daughter who smashed her car through church gates and left a trail of destruction was yesterday convicted of dangerous driving – two years after an almost IDENTICAL road-rage rampage.
The Hon Linda Granville, 61, ploughed her 4×4 into iron gates during a frantic drive narrowly missing terrified passers-by on May 12 last year.
Shockingly, in July 2008 she deliberately crashed through a padlocked gate at a livery yard after her boyfriend threatened the owner with a pair of nunchucks.
Granville – the daughter of the late Lord Granville of Eye – was today found guilty of dangerous driving and damaging property after a five day trial at Worcester Crown Court.
She remained silent in the dock after a jury of seven men and five women took just one hour and 25 minutes to return guilty verdicts.
The court heard how Granville’s destruction started when she clipped a man’s car in her blue Range Rover Freelander and sped away in ”blind fury” up the road.
Stunned pedestrians heard her horn sounding continuously as she sped into the Great Malvern Priory, Worcs., where she left a folder scrawled with bizarre ramblings at the altar.
Several hours earlier she left an obscure message on a board about needing ”two new teeth” outside the gate.
Witnesses who feared she might kill somebody desperately tried to contain her by closing the church gates as she sped down the gravel track.
But Granville ”hunched herself for the moment of impact” and smashed through the gate.
She then blared her horn and jumped a red light before she careered out of control and shunted a black Peugeot into a hedge on a nearby road.
Granville gave the police a fake name when they caught up with her and she told them that her fiancé had been kidnapped and that she was being sexually harassed.
The police arrested her under the Mental Health Act.
The jury rejected her defence that she feared she would be raped or attacked by the church verger.
James Dunstan, prosecuting said Granville’s claims were ”absolute codswallop”.
He added: ”We say nothing Miss Granville says is reliable, it’s all made up. She had to make it up to construct a defence.
”We say that it’s all a nonsense. Nothing she says is true at all. We say that it’s all absolute codswallop. It doesn’t add up, it doesn’t make sense.”
The jury were unaware that in July 2008 Granville was found guilty of another road-rage incident.
On that occasion she roared with laughter as she drove her Land Rover at livery yard owner Lynda Rankine (corr) in row over an unpaid bill.
Granville’s fiancé Paul Bellingham held nunchucks – martial arts weapons – above his head and yelled ”I’m going to gouge your eyes out” at stunned onlookers.
She then ploughed into a 12ft wooden gate as Miss Rankine cowered in a nearby bush having jumped away from the oncoming car at her stables in Newent, Glos.
Grenville was convicted of criminal damage and fined #1,000 at Gloucester Magistrates Court.
Yesterday (Fri) Judge Michael Cullum told her: ”I don’t think it’s appropriate to sentence you today.
”I want to know more about you from the probation service. I’m going to ask the probation service to see you to provide a written report to me.
”It’s up to whether you co-operate with them but you will be well advised to do so.”
Granville was granted bail and disqualified from driving.
She was ordered to return to court on October 8 for sentencing.
She refused to comment as she left court with her fiancé Paul Bellingham.
