A driver terrorised her neighbour in a long-standing feud that stemmed from a row over abandoned bags of chicken excrement.
Debbie Ross, 61, repeatedly aimed her car and accelerated towards retired joiner John Everett as he walked near his home on the historic Dall Estate, Kinloch Rannoch.
A jury heard how Ross drove at her neighbour while shouting abuse, sounding her horn and flashing her headlamps, forcing him to take evasive action to avoid getting hit.
Once, she charged at him when he was with a three-year-old girl.
Ross was convicted of three charges of culpable and reckless driving following a three-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC told her: “You perpetrated a course of abusive behaviour towards Mr Everett by driving your car and accelerated towards him and on one occasion (a three-year-old child).
“Although your car did not strike any pedestrian it did have the potential to be very dangerous and it did cause distress to Mr Everett and his family.
“It is with concern that I note from your evidence that you appear to believe your behaviour was perfectly justified.”
Sentence was deferred for background reports and a psychological assessment.
The sheriff added: “I have no confidence that you will engage with the process of obtaining reports were you admitted to liberty and you will remain in custody.”
Bags of chicken waste
The court heard how retired joiner Mr Everett welcomed new tenant Ross onto the estate with a gift of homemade soup.
The relationship soured during lockdown, seemingly in a row over chickens.
Ross had complained she did not want to look after hens left by a previous occupant of her home.
Mr Everett claimed she left a bin bag or two of chicken faeces at his parking space outside his home in April 2020.
He told the court he thought she was hinting he could take the bags to the end of the road for kerbside collection.
“She’s got a big Land Rover so she could take out her own c**p,” he said.
Mr Everett said when he moved the bags a few feet onto her land, she came running towards him.
A “tug o’ war” erupted and Mr Everett claimed Ross then tore a bag open and emptied the contents onto his car.
Ross denied this happened.
The jury returned a not proven verdict to an allegation she threw excrement over her neighbour’s car.
‘Here’s that nutter’
The court heard how Mr Everett reported his neighbour to police on August 16 2020.
He had been walking with his dog Blue and another neighbour, nurse Lorraine Smith.
“I saw her car coming down the lane,” Mr Everett told the jury.
“I said ‘Here’s that nutter coming, what’s she going to do this time?’.
“She swerved towards me, then swerved back out again and carried on.
“I thought she had done it to frighten me.”
He said he felt the wind blowing past him as she drove near.
“I pushed the dog with my knee against a gate… to protect myself.
“I didn’t want to get run over by a three-and-a-half tonne vehicle.”
Asked how Ms Smith had reacted, Mr Everett said: “She said ‘f*** me, that was close.'”
Drove car at child
Police received another complaint about Ross on September 6 2020 at 11am.
Mr Everett had been walking with his partner Diane McDevitt.
He said he had to push himself off the side of the Land Rover to avoid getting hit by a wing mirror as she drove past.
Mr Everett was walking with a toddler when Ross came at him again on the evening of September 23 2020.
“I saw the car coming round the corner,” he said.
“I was trying to get her to stop. I was holding up my hand and saying stop, not now, there’s a child here.”
He grabbed the youngster and got her out of the way.
Ross drove onto grass nearby, before continuing.
“I blew my stack, I have to be honest,” Mr Everett said.
“I said I was going to go up there to murder her, because that’s what I felt like doing. I told the police that.”
Concrete overcoat?
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, questioned if there was more behind the neighbours’ rift.
He asked if, during an incident in 2020, Mr Everett had ever pointed rifle at Ross.
“B*llocks,” Mr Everett responded.
He denied he had a run-in with Ross in Edinburgh in 1989 and when asked if he had made reference to a “concrete overcoat” in her presence, he replied: “This is getting ridiculous.
“I don’t do bad things, I don’t have a gun and I don’t know anything about a concrete overcoat.”
Accused emailed police
Retired police officer Alan Band, 60, told how he tried to speak to Ross at her home following a complaint from Mr Everett after the September 6 incident.
There was no response at her door, so he left a calling card.
He received an early morning email from Ross with the subject line “Nasty Neighbour Dall”.
She wrote: “Saw nasty neighbour leaning both elbows on nurse’s gate, chatting. His dog was tucked in.
“The gate was safely off the track. Also not likely to leap out onto the track with nurse watching or do anything mad.
“I went past fast – not that fast, it’s a wee rough track.
“I said oh yes, I’m going to run over you today, before I went past.
“After I passed I realised I had my window down and shouted ‘ar**hole.’
“I don’t want NN jumping out again and blocking the path on a future occasion.”
She suggested police should charge her neighbour with “obstructing the highway”.
Ross, now a prisoner at HMP Stirling, was remanded on July 29 after twice failing to attend court hearings.
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
