Atidel Boutara Cook was convicted of criminal damage and assault after destroying her neighbour’s wisteria plant and hitting her with a crutch — then appeared to breach her restraining order before even leaving the courtroom.
A woman who was sentenced for destroying her neighbour’s wisteria and subsequently assaulting her with a crutch, breached her new restraining order before even leaving the courtroom, a judge has cautioned.
Atidel Boutara Cook was found guilty of criminal damage after she destroyed a flowering plant owned by her upstairs neighbour, Pei Wong, and assaulted her on December 17 last year. Boutara Cook, who had been neighbours with Ms Wong for two decades, verbally abused her and struck her once on the forehead and twice on the chest with her crutch when confronted about the plant, Highbury Magistrates’ Court heard previously.
Ms Wong and her husband Louis Scott are the freeholders of the Victorian property in Stanhope Gardens, Tottenham, North London. They reside upstairs while Boutara Cook lives in the ground floor flat, the trial was told.
Boutara Cook has continued to cause disturbances at the property, including “ongoing banging at night” that has disrupted Ms Wong’s sleep, according to the victim’s impact statement summarised by the prosecution on Wednesday.
Ms Wong stated that she feels trapped in her home, intimidated, anxious, and emotionally drained, and has since installed CCTV.
District Judge Denis Brennan informed Boutara Cook that she has made the lives of Ms Wong, her husband – and potentially their children – a “misery”.
He ordered her to pay them £500 and issued a five-year restraining order prohibiting her from contacting them.
Judge Brennan asked Boutara Cook, who represented herself, if she understood the penalty.
She responded “absolutely, yep” before glancing up at the public gallery and blowing a kiss towards the pair, asking: “Happy?”
As she made her way towards the courtroom exit, she shouted to them: “I will send it to you in one go, so you can go on holiday.”
The judge interrupted: “I warn you Ms Boutara Cook that that is immediately a breach of the restraining order.”
He stated it would be determined later whether police become involved.
Mr Scott noticed Boutara Cook chopping down the wisteria and removing other plants as he arrived home from work on the evening of December 17.
She told Mr Scott “f*** you, nasty people” when he confronted her, stated prosecutor Mr Groves, who declined to provide his first name to journalists.
The architect pair seldom engaged with Boutara Cook but requested she cease, the court heard previously.
Ms Wong recorded the altercation and it revealed the defendant positioned outside the front entrance clutching large garden shears.
Her husband could be heard saying: “This is really horrible, you doing this.”
The mobile was dropped and screaming and shouting can be heard in the background, including repeated swearing.
Mr Scott told the trial: “When she noticed my wife was filming her, she seemed to rather lose control of herself, started screaming abuse and waving her arms, she grabbed my wife’s phone.
“She also then came up to my wife and struck her a number of times with her crutch.” Boutara Cook was also handed a 12-month community order with 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
The restraining order prohibits her from contacting the couple directly or indirectly, including through their children.
An exception is in place if the couple reach out to her regarding building issues or she communicates with them via a solicitor.
Judge Brennan stated: “Living in accommodation, whether it’s in London or anywhere, should be something that gives people safety, gives them a sense of wellbeing and a sense of which they can lead a happy and ordered life.
“Your behaviour prior to and on December 17 – and if I understand matters correctly, since December 17 – has meant the lives of Mr Scott and Ms Wong, and I infer, their children, a life of misery.
“That is not fair that is not appropriate.”