text: A woman who fractured her neighbour's skull with a hammer during a street fight as part of an eight-year feud has been jailed. Lisa Williams, 49, hit taxi driver David Coleman three times after finding the 54-year-old brawling with her brother in the street, a court heard. The two families had been 'neighbours at war' since the Colemans moved in next door to the Williams family on St Catherine’s Road, Chingford, in 2007. Lisa Williams (pictured leaving court, left) hit taxi driver David Coleman (right) three times with the hammer during a street fight . On the morning of the attack, the court heard that William's sibling Jonathan had smeared mud all over the Coleman's front bay windows. When the victim went to confront him, they got into a fight. James Benson, prosecuting, said: ‘Mr Coleman is not a small man but fairly well built, Jonathan Williams is bigger built still and is in fact a younger man than Mr Coleman,’ he said. ‘Between the two of them punches were thrown by both parties, this was before Lisa Williams had anything to do with the incident. ‘Ultimately the parties say Mr Williams gained the upper hand in the fight as the bigger and younger man, and both me went to the ground.’ At that point the bigger man allegedly straddled Mr Coleman as Williams emerged from their house holding a claw hammer, she then struck him three times to the head. She was only stopped when a third neighbour Bernard Mason, pulled the hammer out of her hands, and his wife Pamela was forced to sit on the her until the police arrived. Williams admitted striking Mr Coleman with a hammer, but claimed she believed he was about to kill her brother and she acted out of panic. Warring neighbours: The two families were described as ‘neighbours at war’ after the Colemans (left) moved in next door to the Williams' home (right) Before fetching the hammer she called 999 from  house she shared with her brother and mother, who can be heard screaming ‘leave him alone, leave him alone’ in the background. Williams was convicted of unlawfully wounding Mr Coleman after a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in February. Mr Benson described the two families as ‘neighbours at war’. The victim told the court that the Williams family had an irrational hatred of him. He claimed they would throw dog faeces over their garden fence and let their pet bark all hours of the day. Mr Coleman also believed they would be deliberately noisy and bang on the walls in the morning so he couldn't sleep after a night shift. However, Recorder Richard Sutton told the family ‘it takes two to Tango’. In a victim impact statement, Mr Coleman said he still suffers headaches and anxiety as a result of the attack, and often has to take days off work as a result. Isobel McCarroll, for Williams, said: ‘On the day in questions they were doing home improvements, her brother was out the front and she was doing some gardening, the hammer was in the hallway. ‘She came across an incident that was in full swing, she was nothing to do with the initial fighting - she came across something that must have been a terrifying scene and she rang 999 first.’ Williams, 49, was jailed for 30 months today at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London (pictured) after she was found guilty of maliciously wounding Mr Coleman . ‘She then went and tried to split the parties up, she went back in and she didn’t know if she was going to call 999 again and when she was in she saw the hammer - it might go a considerable way to mitigating the actions that followed. ‘It was three blows in quick succession and thankfully it was stopped by Mr Mason.’ She said Williams, who has no previous convictions, has been living apart from her family for two years since the incident and the family are now selling their home on St Catherine’s Road. Jailing Williams for two years and six months, the judge said: ‘You find yourself in a very, very sad situation as you no doubt appreciate, and it has come about because of the situation that has evolved between you and your neighbours. ‘This in my view was an incident waiting to happen and it was going to be serious and both sides were quite prepared for confrontation as and when it arose. ‘That’s the problem if it becomes violent, you never quite know where it is going to end - I understand that you thought the only way to respond to what was taking place was to arm yourself and it’s that action that the law finds unallowable and therefore criminal. ‘I accept that there was a substantial amount of provocation’. Williams was also barred from contacting the Coleman family indefinitely and ordered to pay a £120 surcharge.
target: Lisa Williams hit neighbour David Coleman with a hammer three times .
  The families had been 'at war' since the Colemans moved in next door .
  Victim - who suffered a fractured skull - was brawling with Williams' brother .
  She was handed a restraining order and sentenced to 30 months in jail .