A WOMAN whacked a man on the head with a golf club with such force in a broad daylight street attack that blood splattered into a garden, a trial heard.

Louise McGartland was seen by witnesses to grab the nine iron from her car and make a beeline for her cousin before wielding it and cracking it off his skull.

The mum-of-two and another male cousin had gone to confront the man about money he owed before she lost her temper and carried out the assault.

McGartland, 31, was easily identifiable as the attacker because she was wearing matching bright orange shorts and t-shirt, Greenock Sheriff Court heard.

Two independent witnesses told how they saw her hitting the man with the club as a loud shouting match on the town's Gael Street ended in violence.

One woman, 39, who watched the incident unfold from her living room window, said: "She went back to her car and got a golf club out and proceeded to hit a male.

"The blood actually ended up in our garden.

"I don't know how many times she hit him but it was definitely more than once."

The witness told the court that she was on the phone to a friend when she heard a commotion outside on July 26 last year and had initially found it 'quite funny'.

She said: "I was treating it as a bit of entertainment.

"I know that sounds terrible.

"But then it got really serious.

"I said to my friend that I'd have to phone the police because it was getting out of hand.

"I had a view from my living room window directly down on where it was happening.

"You could see the force that she hit him with."

Another woman, 28, told how she also saw the assault and both females identified McGartland in court as being the perpetrator.

Police recovered the golf club from the rear seat of McGartland's car and duly arrested her.

The injured man failed to provide a statement and didn't appear as a witness for the heavily postponed trial on four occasions.

McGartland — who has a previous conviction for assault — insisted it was her other cousin who attacked the man.

She claimed to the court that she was a peacemaker trying to break up a scuffle between the two.

Prosecutor John Penman said: "The defence position is, 'It wisnae me, it was someone else', and the someone else has come to court and said nothing."

Sheriff Janys M Scott QC found McGartland guilty.

The sheriff said: "There are two independent witnesses who were each reliable and consistent with their evidence, and they corroborate each other."

Sentence on McGartland, of Westmorland Road, has been deferred until May 24 for a background report.