From left Dorothy, Liz and Jess Rugg-Easy, horsewhipped by an intruder at their stables

by Ed Targett

Three generations of women slashed with a horse whip and punched in a midnight horror attack have told of their ordeal.

Dorothy Rugg-Easy, 71, her daughter Liz, 43 (pictured below), and granddaughter Jess, 17, were set upon by heavily-built brute John Thompson on their property in Blean.

Dorothy was the first to be hit when she woke to find 58-year-old Thompson at her stables.

He had gone to the country home following a dispute over ownership of a horse loaned to his stepdaughter.

Dorothy said: “I have CCTV on my stables and when I was woken by the dogs barking I was up in a flash. I grabbed a three-foot schooling whip and went to see what was going on.

“This big brute of a man was leaning on the stable door and when I asked him what he was doing he snatched the whip and starting hitting me with it. I was lying on the ground in my nightie with my legs kicking.”

The pensioner says she hasn’t slept properly since the attack and has now installed infra-red CCTV.

Her daughter, fitness instructor Liz, says she thought it was a bad dream.

She said: “It must have been just after 1am. I could hear mum screaming and crying and thought ‘the old girl has finally lost it’.

“When I saw him [Thompson] with the whip I thought I could calm the situation down but as soon as I went outside – and I was only wearing a long T-shirt and pair of knickers – he just punched me in the face.”

Liz was left with a black eye and whip marks after the attack.

Her teenage daughter Jess, who came running to help, was also struck by Thompson.

It wasn’t until Jess’s hero boyfriend, Canterbury College student Josh Mapp, ran to the rescue shouting ‘you don’t hit women!’ that Thompson was restrained with a rope.

He appeared in court last Monday and pleaded guilty to three counts of assault following the attack on August 11.

He was jailed for 160 days, but the sentence was suspended for two years. He was also ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work and must pay £250 compensation and £85 costs.