WOMAN GUILTY OF KICKING ASSISTANCE DOG AND ASSAULTING NEIGHBOR IN NEWTOWNABBEY
Airport worker Lorraine Lee was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to 18-month-old assistance dog Beau.Lee also admitted the common assault of her neighbour, Alison Wilson, who was looking after Beau for her daughter at the time.
Alison, an animal rescue volunteer, told the court she was taking Beau for a walk when she confronted Lee, who was angry because she believed that Alison had complained to the council about her dachshund biting another dog.
She said: “My daughter was away, so I was taking Beau for a walk and was passing Lorraine’s house when her dogs started barking.
I heard all this yelling and effing and blinding all over the street and she said ‘Imagine reporting that’, pointing at her dachshund.
I didn’t report her dog.
She told the court: “She told me my dog needed to be on the lead, and I told her she needed to clean her house as she’s plenty of time on her hands and it’s an absolute dive.
“She shouted she was going to kill me and came running up to me, shaking her hands in my face before booting the dog in the stomach and shoving me.
“I pulled her hair and told her this would be the last time she kicks a dog.
I absolutely did not cover myself in glory.
“My daughter came home on the next plane from England and was distraught.
“That dog kept her tail between her legs for two days straight and we had to delay getting her spayed due to the bruising.” Lee told the court that she had only moved Beau aside with her foot.
“It got really personal and hurtful,” she said.
“She called me and my child ‘nutjobs’ and called my daughter [Jasmine Lee] a drug addict, which she is not.
That was when I got defensive.
“Those kind of accusations about my child are dangerous.
“I did not threaten to kill her.
I was in her personal space, which I regret.
The dog came towards me and I thought it was going to attack, so I moved it aside with my foot.
“I then got trailed and punched in the head.
“I am distraught to be here.
I tried to take my own life over this.” Alison accepted a community resolution order for her part in the scrap.
Sentencing: fined a total of £800.
An application to have Lee banned from keeping animals was rejected by the court.
