A neighbourly feud involving a damaged garden gnome resulted in a 15-month legal ordeal for a law-abiding grandmother.
Lorraine Hutton branded the draconian saga ‘an enormous waste of time and public money’, after being accused of deliberately damaging the 18-inch ceramic ornament.
Mrs Hutton, 66, admitted she had accidentally broken off one of the gnome’s legs while moving it from a communal pathway outside her flat in Bournemouth, and said she had already apologised to its owner, Lilijana Cekauskiene.
She also said she posted £20 through her neighbour’s letterbox to cover the damage. But Mrs Hutton was horrified when Mrs Cekauskiene reported the damage to Dorset Police and accused her of breaking the gnome ‘provocatively’.
The 66-year-old was then ordered to attend a police station for interview and formally charged with criminal damage.
