20 March 2023 , 13:48
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Dramatic footage reveals the moment a pensioner attacked her neighbour in a pretty row about a communal garden.
Eunice Day, 81, attacked her neighbour Suzanne Webb and reached over her potted geranium plant to assault her in Ferndown, Dorset.
A court heard Day upset her neighbours after she moved into a rented bungalow and left her Audi on a communal patch of grass next to it.
Leaving the car there stopped nearby homeowners from cutting the grass.
Mrs Webb then asked Day to move the car, but was told by the pensioner that she could "park wherever I like".
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A Poole magistrate found Day guilty of assault.
Day said she acted in self-defence (BNPS)
Day claimed she thought Mrs Webb had a knife (BNPS)The magistrates hear that Day escalated the feud by deliberately blocking a private footpath leading to the five detached homes at the end of the cul-de-sac with her wheelie bin.
She is also said to have sat outside on her mobility scooter in an attempt to intimidate her neighbours.
Mrs Webb told magistrates: "She had parked her Audi on the private strip of land we share between our five houses.
"I asked her who it belonged to when I was out on a walk and she said something like 'I can park where I like'. It sat there for weeks. We found the situation uncomfortable."
Eunice Day got into a heated row with her neighbour after parking her Audi on a communal patch of grass (BNPS)Five residents then complained to Day's letting agents, leading to Day pounding on Webb's front door.
Day claimed she thought she owned the land where she parked her car.
She said: "They kept saying that my car was on their property. I had already told Mrs Webb that I would look into the Land Registry and if my car was parked illegally I would move it.
"Then I had an email from them asking me to move my car so that they could mow their communal lawn. I pay a person to cut the lawn and I cut that part. At that time it was so hot that the grass was barely there."
Footage showed Day reaching over Mrs Webb's window box and smacking the phone out of her hand.
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Day - ordered to pay £646 in costs - was given a conditional discharge as there was no evidence that Mrs Webb sustained any injuries in the skirmish.
Mrs Webb had her six-year-old granddaughter with her and she was left frightened by the incident in Mountbatten Drive in Ferndown, Dorset, on June 20, 2022.
Michael McGhie, defending, said his client had been acting in self-defence, claiming he thought Webb was holding a knife instead of her phone.
He said: "The defendant is a perfectly respectable woman who worked in business her whole life.
Michael McGhie, defending, said his client is a 'perfectly respectable woman' (BNPS)"She came to live in Ferndown and has had an unhappy relationship with her neighbours.
"This has gone on for a few months and my client wanted to go round and clear the air with the woman she thought was making all of the complaints. Not an unreasonable thing to do.
"My client has had a number of recent eye operations and she was under the impression that a knife came towards her.
"It was actually a phone but she made a split second decision to defend herself.
"She made a pre-emptive strike and in circumstances when you feel in danger you can make the first action."
Prosecuting, Jason Spelman said the "suggestion that the complainant had a knife is ridiculous".
He said: "The defendant has gone there in a temper to talk about what has been going on, blocking the drive and leaving bins on pavements.
"This was never going to be a friendly visit to her neighbour.
unice Day's home, circled, on the corner of Mountbatten Drive and Brabourne Avenue in Ferndown, Dorset and, blue circle, the home of Suzanne Webb (BNPS)He continued: "You cannot hear Mrs Webb saying anything aggressively.
"I would suggest the defendant did what she did because she was angry that she was being videoed."
Presiding magistrate Paul Kemp agreed the video footage showed Day was not acting in self-defence.
He said: "The complainant's hand did not go outside of the window frame and the defendant reached in and slapped the phone from her hand.
"We do not accept that this was in self-defence. We find the case proven beyond reasonable doubt."