A neighbour from hell has been convicted of destroying her neighbour’s wisteria and striking her multiple times with a crutch.
Atidel Boutara Cook was found guilty of criminal damage and assault following an incident on December 17 last year at a Victorian property in Stanhope Gardens, north London.
The attack targeted Pei Wong, who along with her husband Louis Scott owns the freehold of the building where Boutara Cook occupies the ground floor flat.
The couple, both architects, had been neighbours with Boutara Cook for two decades before the violent confrontation erupted over the destroyed flowering plant.
District Judge Denis Brennan issued the verdict at Highbury Magistrates’ Court.
The confrontation began when Mr Scott returned home from work that evening and discovered Boutara Cook cutting down the wisteria and uprooting other plants outside the property.
When he approached her, she responded with “f**k you, nasty people,” prosecutor Mr Groves told the court, who would not give his first name to reporters.
Ms Wong began recording the incident on her phone, capturing footage of the defendant wielding large garden shears near the front entrance.
Atidel Boutara Cook was charged with assaulting her neighbour as well as destroying her plants
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“This is really horrible, you doing this,” Mr Scott can be heard telling her in the recording.
According to Mr Scott’s testimony, Boutara Cook “seemed to rather lose control of herself” upon noticing she was being filmed, screaming abuse and flailing her arms before snatching his wife’s phone.
She then struck Ms Wong once on the forehead and twice on the chest with her crutch, calling her a “f*****g b***h.”
Judge Brennan imposed a five-year restraining order prohibiting Boutara Cook from any direct or indirect contact with the couple, including through their children.
Atidel Boutara Cook immediately violated her restraining order as she left the court
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She was also ordered to pay £500 in compensation and received a 12-month community order requiring 15 rehabilitation activity days.
An exception permits communication only if the victims initiate contact regarding building matters or if Boutara Cook engages through a solicitor.
The judge addressed the self-represented defendant directly about the impact of her actions.
“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,” he stated.
“That is not fair that is not appropriate.”
When Judge Brennan asked whether she understood the penalty, Boutara Cook replied “absolutely, yep” before looking up towards the public gallery where the couple sat and blowing them a kiss, asking: “Happy?”
Walking towards the exit, she called out: “I will send it to you in one go, so you can go on holiday.”
The judge immediately intervened: “I warn you Ms Boutara Cook that that is immediately a breach of the restraining order.”
He indicated that a decision on police involvement would follow.
Ms Wong’s victim impact statement revealed that harassment has persisted since the December attack, with “ongoing banging at night” disrupting her sleep.
She described feeling trapped, intimidated, anxious and emotionally drained in her own home, prompting the installation of CCTV cameras.
