A woman who tossed a pan of water into her neighbour's garden onto children playing outside says she is speechless after being found guilty of assault.
Michelle Dodd, 38, of Stockport, admitted throwing water from an upstairs window into Afshan Iqbal's garden while her children were playing, following a year-long dispute over the noise the children made while playing on their trampoline.
Dodd claimed that she was confined to her bed by illness at the time of the incident, and was emptying her cat's water bowl rather than targeting the four children.
However, her defence was undermined by the fact that she had thrown water into Iqbal's garden on two other occasions, each time splashing Iqbal or one of her children.
The police had been involved in the dispute between Dodd and Iqbal before the water-throwing incident, which occurred in May 2014, due to an ongoing row about the alleged noise coming from the children.
"I probably did shout at the kids to shut up, they were constantly shouting, screeching and throwing things," Dodd admitted at Stockport Magistrates' Court, but nonetheless maintained that it was not her intention to throw water onto the children.
Chairman of the bench Jeffrey Stones was unconvinced, however. "You threw water out of the bedroom window not caring where it went," he told Dodd, finding her guilty on three counts of assault.
"It's disgusting, but there's nothing I can do," Dodd told the Manchester Evening News after being landed with a 12-month conditional discharge and £280 costs. "I thought the court would laugh and sue the police for wasting everyone's time."
Iqbal told the court through an interpreter that her three-year-old son suffers from a dry skin condition, and that the soaking he received at Dodd's hand had resulted in an eczema flare-up.
She also said that she had tried to respond reasonably to Dodd's initial complaint, back in December 2013, by moving the trampoline across the garden, but argued that she could do little else to stop her children making noise.
"I can't stop my two-year-old shouting or being loud. They are only children, they do what children do."