Storm in a plant pot

Gardener punches neighbour’s girlfriend for criticising her tubs

The nuisance caused by her large plant pots had long created tension between Angela Williams and her neighbour.

But matters in the quiet culde-sac came to a head when she overheard criticism of her display of roses and azaleas coming from next door.

Williams, 57, flew into a rage and attacked her neighbour’s girlfriend Jasmina Vidovic, punching her in the face four times, a court heard. This week, she was convicted of assault.

Miss Vidovic, who is in her 40s and originally from Bosnia, had been returning with partner Peter Adams to his bungalow in Mudeford, Dorset, when she remarked that the pots, which had been placed obstructing the path to his back garden, were a hazard.

Williams, who had been in the front garden of her £400,000 bungalow, confronted Miss Vidovic, who was holding a carrier bag of tomatoes in each hand.

‘Angela said it was “none of your business” in quite a loud and aggressive tone,’ Mr Adams, 62, told Poole magistrates. ‘She said “You fat cow” and “Can’t you do better than that, Peter?”. Angela referred to a party a few weeks before where she told my friends, “I would knock her block off”.

‘Then suddenly, out of the blue, she hit her four times in the face. I froze because I was shocked.’

Miss Vidovic, who had perceived Williams’s insults as a racial slur, told the court: ‘The plant pots were down the side of the wall on the path. I was aware Peter was very annoyed that he couldn’t use the path any more. The pots were clearly on his side. I found it funny the pots were still there after so many times he said he didn’t want them there.’ Of the assault, she said: ‘It went from being a very nice day into a disaster where I was beaten up and humiliated.’

The next day, Williams posted a card through Mr Adams’s door reading: ‘Peter, I apologise for my unladylike behaviour. Angie. X.’

Mr Adams, a university lecturer, said that during their monthslong dispute over the pots, he had posted a note through Williams’s door asking her to move them, only for it to be screwed up and returned through his letter box.

he said the stress of the case caused him to split up with Miss Vidovic. he has since moved – and a fence panel has been put up between the bungalows to keep Williams’s pots off the path.

When police arrested Williams, she claimed she had acted in selfdefence because Miss Vidovic had started ‘mouthing off’ and pointed a finger in her face.

She said she had felt threatened by Miss Vidovic, adding: ‘In a preemptive strike I slapped her once to her face with my right hand with the force that I felt was reasonable in the circumstances.’

In court, she denied assault. She claimed the plant pots had never been a problem and that she would have moved them if asked.

however, magistrates found Williams guilty of assault. They fined her £180 and told her to pay £100 costs as well as a £34 victim surcharge to Miss Vidovic.

An unrepentant Williams shouted from the dock: ‘She is not getting a penny from me.’