A Fife father stencilled pictures of “Banksy rats” onto a homemade structure during a parking feud between his daughter and her neighbour after the pair called the family “immigrant rats”.
William Gilbertson put his box-shaped creation into his daughter Lynne’s parking spot in Dunfermline, having blocked off the space with sandbags for 17 months.
A trial heard there had been an earlier fallout with neighbour Michelle Anderson over claims she regularly parked on or across a white line separating their allocated bays.
The Gilbertsons had denied making any racial comments and said the Banksy pictures were an artwork commentary on society but were found guilty by a sheriff after a four-day trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
‘Fat Britney Spears’ slur
Giving evidence by video link, Mrs Anderson told the trial she was often subjected to taunts and profanities from the Gilbertsons, which included the daughter calling her an “American c**t”.
The 45-year-old, who now lives in Belgium with her husband Julian, said: “She (Ms Gilbertson) would make reference to my appearance – she called me a fat Britney Spears.
“It was high school, stupid stuff like that and when I had family members over, they would be targeted.
“It was extremely distressing and humiliating.”
She said both Ms Gilbertson – a senior staff nurse at a children’s hospice – and her retired father, would call her and her family “immigrant rats” in the car park to the rear of their Trondheim Parkway West properties and it became an “inside joke” to them.
Asked by prosecutor Azrah Yousaf what she thought this referred to, Ms Anderson said: “That we were just not good, we were not entitled to live there, they did not believe we belonged”.
On Mrs Anderson’s wedding day – Valentine’s Day 2022 – Mr Gilbertson was heard saying “the rats got married” and calling her adult daughter the “rat child” as the Anderson family unloaded their car outside.
The trial heard about another occasion when Mrs Anderson was outside her home helping position a menorah at a window for Hanukkah.
As she spoke to her family through the partially-open window, she said she was interrupted by Mr Gilbertson who was in the next-door garden.
She said: “He (Gilbertson) looked up and said ‘f***ing Jewbags’.”
Sandbags
Mr Gilbertson told the trial he began putting sandbags in one of his daughter’s two allocated parking spaces in May 2022 to stop Mrs Anderson parking over the dividing line between bays.
Mrs Anderson, who acknowledged she had at times encroached on her neighbour’s space, said the sandbags were “right up against” her car when she parked.
She claimed Ms Gilbertson would disrupt her parking manoeuvres by running out and taking pictures.
Environmental protection services were contacted over health concerns about cats using the sandbags, with mediation also attempted during the dispute.
Mrs Anderson said her husband paid more than £1,000 to get a reverse parking camera installed in their pick-up vehicle.
‘Banksy stencils’
Mr Gilbertson said he built his box structure in October 2023 with pallets from Homebase, filled it with brick and sand, and stencilled internet-bought copies of rat images by artist Banksy onto one of the old sandbags, which was stapled onto the box.
Left-pointing arrows were painted on the graphic with the instruction “keep left” on an attached two-metre-high vertical pole.
He said it took him about half-a-day to build.
Mrs Anderson said she interpreted the pictures of rodents to mean the “rat family” and found it offensive.
Her husband, Julian, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, told the trial: “I took it to mean immigrant rats or Jewish rats, pointing at my property (parking space).
“It was enough to cause me alarm and unwanted attention.”
The 51-year-old, who was often away from home with his job, said the situation impacted his wife who has had therapy sessions, and his stepdaughter, who lives in England and told the court she was constantly on the phone to her crying mother.
Asked by the prosecutor why the rat images bothered her, 23-year-old Katelyn Anderson said: “Because they had been calling us immigrant rats, Jewish rats.
“It’s not uncommon for Jewish people to hear that kind of stuff – but then to go out of your way to make a structure and draw on it…”
‘Not racist people’
Mr Gilbertson, who previously worked offshore in the oil industry, said there was “no racial motivation behind this at all” and he did nothing wrong by building the structure.
Asked why the images were chosen, his 40-year-old daughter said: “Banksy’s art, in the case of the rat, is an anagram of art and Banksy speaks to social injustice.
“The minions work away while businesses earn money and the rats are kept in the gutter and kept down.
“Rats are everywhere, art is everywhere – it’s playing on the anagram”.
The Gilbertsons claimed none of the racial abuse incidents ever happened.
Ms Gilbertson insisted they are “not racist people” and she does not hold racist or prejudiced thoughts towards anybody.
Mr Gilbertson, 66, claimed the Andersons had “concocted” a story after his homemade structure went up in the parking space in order to get rid of the sandbags.
Guilty
Sheriff Susan Duff found them both guilty of acting in a racially-aggravated manner which caused or was intended to cause alarm or distress.
Mr Gilbertson, of Dempster Place, Dunfermline, was found guilty of repeatedly making offensive remarks and spray-painting offensive pictures on sandbags between December 1 2019 and October 2023, aggravated by religious prejudice in terms of Section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003.
On various occasions between January 1 2022 and October 25 last year, Ms Gilbertson was guilty of repeatedly shouting, swearing, calling Mr and Mrs Gilbertson racially offensive names, and uttering threats of violence.
Sheriff Duff deferred sentencing until December 5 for background reports and asked for an explanation as to why the case was prosecuted at the less serious summary complaint level.
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