Monday 11 December 2017

Washing Line Wars: Pensioner Cleared Of Assaulting Neighbour

Not Guilty: Fitanushi Avakyan
A pensioner has been cleared of attacking her neighbour while allegedly shouting: “I will kill you,” during a washing line row in the back garden of a senior community.

Fitanushi Avakyan, 85, always denied the claim, insisting her neighbour misunderstood her. 


She maintains she was simply saying: “I'm telling you,” in her thick Armenian accent.

She found herself charged with assaulting Sandra Allardyce, 59, who lives four doors away at Somerset Lodge, Somerset Road, Brentford, on August 27, last year.


The complainant told Ealing Magistrates Court last Friday she was re-attaching the communal washing-line in the shared rear garden when Avakyan came out.


“I was hanging washing out and the resident came out and started abusing me verbally,” explained Ms Allardyce. “She was shouting at me, she became more aggressive.


“She was shouting loudly: 'I will kill you, I will kill you.'


“I was trying to take a video on my phone and the lady snatched the phone out of my hand, scratching me as she got hold of my phone and pulled my top down and scartched my breast.


“She pulled me off the stool I was standing on and laughed. Had she not intended to do it she would not have laughed.


“Fortunately I did not fall back and bang my head.

Neighbour: Sandra Allardyce

“She was telling me I shouldn't hang it where I was putting it and that's when she got violent and threatened to kill me.”


Avakyan insists she was only telling Ms Allardyce that she was re-attaching the washing line in the wrong place, but the witness said: “That's rubbish.”


There had been previous incidents at Somerset Lodge involving disputes over the washing line and Ms Allardyce had called the police and Avakyan says she has also been forced to complain about her neighbour's behaviour.


“I find her and her family very intimidating. While walking down the path to the garden they are watching and making snide comments and I was spat at last year.”


The magistrates found Avakyan not guilty of assaulting Ms Allardyce.

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