Moment pensioner, 81, attacked neighbour in parking row

A video captured the moment a pensioner attacked her neighbour in a petty row over parking on a communal grass verge in their well-heeled cul-de-sac.

Eunice Day, 81, was caught on video storming over to Suzanne Webb’s house before reaching over her potted geranium plant to assault her.

A court heard that Day had upset her new neighbours soon after moving into her rented bungalow by leaving her Audi on a patch of grass next to it.

She kept it there for several weeks, preventing a group of community-minded homeowners from cutting the lawn in Ferndown, Dorset.

Day was asked to move her car by Mrs Webb, who is in her 60s, but replied that she could ‘park wherever I like’.

Eunice Day’s home (red circle) and Suzanne Webb’s home (blue circle) in Ferndown, Dorset

This picture shows Day’s Audi outside her home (left). She refused to remove the car off the communal grass verge in front of her home, preventing her neighbours from mowing it

Day was caught on video storming over to the home of neighbour Suzanne Webb (pictured)

Day was said to have escalated the feud by deliberately blocking a private footpath leading to the five detached homes at the end of the cul-de-sac with her wheelie bin.

She was also claimed to have sat outside on her mobility scooter in an attempt to intimidate her neighbours.

Matters came to a head after the five residents complained to Day’s letting agent about her behaviour.

It led Day to ‘aggressively’ knock on Mrs Webb’s front door to have it out with her.

The victim videoed Day through her open kitchen window. The footage shows Day reaching over Mrs Webb’s window box and smacking the phone out of her hand.

Mrs Webb had her six-year-old granddaughter with her and she was left frightened by the incident on June 20 last year.

The victim videoed Day through her open kitchen window in Ferndown, Dorset, in June 2022

The clip shows Day reach over the victim’s window box and smack the phone out of her hand

The police were called and Day was prosecuted for assaulting Mrs Webb.

The defendant argued that she had been acting in self-defence and thought her neighbour was holding a knife rather than a phone.

Mrs Webb, who has lived on the road for 25 years, told magistrates in Poole that problems arose soon after Day moved in on April 1 last year.

She said: ‘She had parked her Audi on the private strip of land we share between our five houses.

‘I asked her who it belonged to when I was out on a walk and she said something like “I can park where I like”. It sat there for weeks. We found the situation uncomfortable.’

Day said she thought she owned the parcel of land. She said: ‘They kept saying that my car was on their property. I had already told Mrs Webb that I would look into the Land Registry and if my car was parked illegally I would move it.

‘Then I had an email from them asking me to move my car so that they could mow their communal lawn. I pay a person to cut the lawn and I cut that part. At that time it was so hot that the grass was barely there.’

Day leaves Poole Magistrates’ Court in Dorset last week, where she was convicted

Jason Spelman, prosecuting, said the mobile footage by Mrs Webb showed the manner in which Day approached her house that it was ‘never going to be a friendly visit’.

He said: ‘The defendant has gone there in a temper to talk about what has been going on, blocking the drive and leaving bins on pavements.

‘This was never going to be a friendly visit to her neighbour. It was not a good idea and she flies up the drive and you can see clearly what has happened.

‘The complainant has opened the window with one hand and is filming well inside the house with the other.

‘She physically could not have reached out of the window to threaten the defendant because of her height.

‘If she had stretched her hand out of the window with her phone in it she would have been very vulnerable. You cannot hear Mrs Webb saying anything aggressively.

Day, pictured outside Poole Magistrates’ Court, was given a conditional discharge

‘I would suggest the defendant did what she did because she was angry that she was being videoed. The suggestion that the complainant had a knife is ridiculous.

‘There is nothing to suggest the complainant had one, if there were any concerns she could have just stepped away. There was no reason to reach through.’

Michael McGhie, defending, said his client had been acting in self-defence. He said: ‘The defendant is a perfectly respectable woman who worked in business her whole life.

‘She came to live in Ferndown and has had an unhappy relationship with her neighbours.

‘This has gone on for a few months and my client wanted to go round and clear the air with the woman she thought was making all of the complaints. Not an unreasonable thing to do.

‘My client has had a number of recent eye operations and she was under the impression that a knife came towards her.

‘It was actually a phone but she made a split second decision to defend herself.

‘She made a pre-emptive strike and in circumstances when you feel in danger you can make the first action.’

However, magistrates found Day guilty of assault.

Paul Kemp, presiding magistrate, made it clear that the video evidence was damning. He said: ‘The mobile phone and video footage was quite clear.

‘The complainant’s hand did not go outside of the window frame and the defendant reached in and slapped the phone from her hand.

‘We do not accept that this was in self-defence. We find the case proven beyond reasonable doubt.’

Day was given a conditional discharge because there was no evidence that Mrs Webb sustained any injuries in the skirmish.

She was also ordered to pay £646 in costs.