 Complaints about noise are usually associated with rowdy teenagers or students, but at Kingston Magistrates’ Court on 9th March it was a pensioner and her dogs that were in the dock.
Jill O’Flaherty, 66, is believed to be the first person in London issued with a noise-related ASBO after years of complaints from neighbours about the incessant barking of her dogs. Despite hearing evidence from Dr Roger Monkford, a dog psychologist, stating that Mrs O’Flaherty was “an extremely caring and responsible dog owner”, Magistrate Jeff Marshall fined her £1,500 plus costs. He said that she was in “persistent denial” about the undue stress caused by the barking of her two large dogs. The case brought to a close a long-running dispute between Mrs O’Flaherty and her neighbours that began over the barking of her rare Anatolian Shepherd back in 2003. It escalated when she later got another dog and constructed cages in the garden.
Mrs. O’Flaherty was fined £800 plus costs for breaching Kingston Council’s noise abatement order in February.
The ASBO places restrictions on the amount of time that Mrs O’Flaherty, of Alric Avenue, New Malden, can keep her dogs outside, especially at night. She was warned that if the conditions were breached she could face up to five years in prison.
One neighbour said: “It’s ridiculous that it has gone this far.”
After the hearing, Ted Forsyth, Head of Environmental Health at Kingston Council, which brought the case, said: “I take no pleasure in prosecuting Mrs O’Flaherty, but she had disregarded our warnings, and we felt the anti-social behaviour order was needed to protect her neighbours, which is our job.” Attempts to contact Mrs O'Flaherty at her home were unsuccessful.
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