My six years of agony over a meat pie

A shopper who claims she is still in agony after a Fray Bentos pie fell on her head six years ago has finally dropped her bid for compensation.

Rita Gibson said her life was ruined after the tin hit her in a Co-op store, damaging nerve endings in her head.

But the North Shields branch denied the 1.8m (6ft) column of meat pies were incorrectly stacked and the 76-year-old's lawyers have advised her to drop the case.

'I would rather have been knocked out and killed on the spot than have to live the life I do now,' Mrs Gibson said.

'I don't go out of the house any more and I'm really down about it.'

The widow of Turnberry, North Tyneside, added: 'I thought I would buy one of the pies for my dinner but they were stacked really high, so I had to reach up to get one.

The next thing I knew, one came smashing down. I had a massive throbbing pain in my head. It's never gone away.'

At the time of the incident in May 2002 a Co-op spokesman said: 'We were not responsible for this accident.'