A 41 year-old woman who smashed her neighbours’ windows with a hammer appeared in Derry’s Magistrates Court wearing pyjamas.
Suzanne McNicholl of Keenaught Terrace, Limavady, was charged with criminal damage. The offence took place on January 30, 2014.
McNicholl appeared in the dock wearing navy blue pyjamas with cartoon frogs after being arrested and detained overnight.
The court heard that at 5.15pm, police had received a 999 call from the injured party saying their next door neighbour had smashed their windows with a hammer then returned to her home.
When police arrived six small windows had been smashed causing £100 worth of damage.
Police arrested and hand-cuffed McNicholl and ‘forcibly removed’ her from her home.
During police interview, she said that she had drank a quarter bottle of vodka and had not left her house that day.
David Brewster, defence solicitor, said that McNicholl had her windows broken 15 times and blames the next door neighbour but, despite reporting it to police, there has been no one held accountacble for this.
Mr Brewster said that McNicholl’s actions were ‘down to her snapping’ and that she had ‘behaved very foolishly’.
District Judge Barney McElholm gave McNicholl a condition discharge.
He added: “I decline to make a compensation order for the damage.”
 

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