Wisteria-killing woman breaches restraining order

A woman, who destroyed her neighbour's wisteria before repeatedly hitting her with a crutch, has breached a restraining order before she had left the court that imposed it.

Atidel Boutara Cook was convicted of criminal damage following the attack on Pei Wong in December last year. She was given a restraining order banning contact for five years.

Wong and her husband have lived in the flat above Boutara Cook for 20 years, with Boutara Cook occupying the ground floor flat of in the Victorian property in Tottenham, north London.

Boutara Cook blew a kiss towards her neighbours in court and said she would send them the £500 fine "all at once" so they could "go on holiday".

The judge interjected: "I warn you Ms Boutara Cook that that is immediately a breach of the restraining order."

He said it will be decided later if police get involved.

During the sentencing hearing, the court heard how, since the attack, Boutara Cook had continued to interfere with the property including with "ongoing banging at night" that has impacted Wong's sleep.

Wong said in an impact statement that she feels "trapped in her home, intimidated, anxious and emotionally exhausted", and said CCTV had been installed.

District Judge Denis Brennan told Boutara Cook that she has made the lives of Wong, her husband – and potentially their children – "a misery".

Wong's husband, Louis Scott, spotted Boutara Cook cutting down the wisteria and pulling out other plants as he returned home from work last December.

Boutara Cook swore at Scott, and refused to stop when asked to.

Wong filmed the confrontation and it showed the defendant standing outside the front door holding large garden shears.

Scott told the trial: "When she noticed my wife was filming her, she seemed to rather lose control of herself, started waving her arms, she grabbed my wife's phone.

"She also then came up to my wife and struck her a number of times with her crutch."

Boutara Cook was also given a 12-month community order with 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

Judge Brennan said: "Your behaviour prior to and on 17 December – and if I understand matters correctly, since, has meant the lives of Mr Scott and Ms Wong, and I infer, their children, is a life of misery.

"That is not fair, that is not appropriate."

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