Andrew Nicklin claimed he acted out of frustration after becoming increasingly irritated by the sound of Catherine Farrell’s shih-tzu Yorkshire terrier cross, Buster.
He claimed that after failing to persuade his neighbour to stop the dog barking he decided to record it and replay it at full volume over his neighbour’s fence at 3am.
Nicklin, 50, who is unemployed, admitted harassing Mrs Farrell, but said he had been driven to it because of the constant noise.
But Mrs Farrell told the Birmingham Magistrates Court it was he who was the noisy neighbour, accusing him of deliberately antagonising her pet by playing the drums and turning his radio up in the garden.
Sanjeev Sharma, defending, told the court the pair had lived next door to one another in the West Heath area of Birmingham for ten years without any problem, but relations soured with the arrival of Buster.
Mr Sharma said: “By all accounts for a significant period of time they had lived in harmony, side by side. We submit with the arrival of the dog matters escalate and reach boiling point.
“He is a man, in the ordinary course of things, who is thought of very highly, is very well respected and very well regarded by all.”
But John Bartlett prosecuting said Nicklin had often shouted abusive language at his neighbour.
He said: “It's gone on for so long, the abusive words are wrong and the victim finds it threatening. The victim wants peace and quiet and patently is not getting it.”
Mr Bartlett told the court that the recording of Buster’s barks had been played a number of times and once until 3am during the long-running row, which first began in 2008.
District Judge Jack McGarva adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports.
He granted Nicklin conditional bail and told him to return to court on September 10.
After the hearing, Mrs Farrell, a 44-year old hairdresser and mother-of-two, said: “He is a neighbour from hell and it's he that is the nuisance. He plays loud music himself at all hours and I am not the only one who has had issues with him.”
She added: “He constantly bangs on the fence to make the dog bark and puts a radio on a high frequency and leaves it by the garden fence.
"He will do anything to antagonise the dog. As soon as he does start barking I will bring him inside.
"I have tried to go through the right channels to resolve this but all he does is verbally abuse me and other neighbours and I don't need it.
"He made the dog bark against the fence, recorded it, put it on a CD and then left it on a constant repeat.”
evenios on July 3rd, 2018 at 18:15 UTC »
i think because you need the dogs permission before you can record them.
Nyrin on July 3rd, 2018 at 16:27 UTC »
Does anyone have any actually effective strategies for getting neighbors with neglected, barky dogs to reign them in? To say the neighbor is "not receptive to conversation" is an understatement, but I've read that PDs basically give zero craps. Dogs right next door bark frantically 12+ hours a day, including all hours of the night, charge our shared fence every time we walk on that side of the property (fence is tall enough that it isn't a safety problem, but it makes it difficult to enjoy a third of my yard), and generally just make quality of life a lot lower.
We're considering getting dog whistles or whatever else to try, but I suspect that'll be about as effective as talking to the owner.
Point being, this guy is an absolute dick, but I do empathize with the frustration.
StaticJokes on July 3rd, 2018 at 13:42 UTC »
This happened just down the road from me, they were both as bad as each other to be honest. Tit for tat that just kept escalating.