6:40am Thursday 12th March 2009
By Kerry Grove
Two noisy dogs have become the subject of a canine curfew, after their pet-mad owner was slapped with an antisocial behaviour order this week.
Pensioner Jill O’Flaherty, 66, of Alric Avenue, New Malden, is now the borough’s oldest Asbo holder because she failed to control her dogs’ barking for several years.
O’Flaherty, secretary of the Anatolian Shepherd Dog Club of Great Britain, was fined £3,015 at Kingston Magistrates’ Court on Monday, March 9, and will be subject to the Asbo for the next two years.
Her two dogs Dodger – an Anatolian shepherd - and Angie – a central Asian shepherd – will now only be allowed out in the garden for three hours a day, with two short toilet breaks in the morning and evening.
It is the first noise-related Asbo to be given in London and one of very few in the UK.
O’Flaherty was found guilty of breaching a noise order after a trial at Kingston Magistrates’ Court last month.
Her neighbours told how the incessant barking had blighted their lives.
O’Flaherty was fined £800 by magistrates for breaking the noise order in April 2008 but the problem continued.
Environmental health officers installed recording equipment in a neighbour’s study to capture evidence between July 8 and 23 last year.
Semi-retired medical professor David Allison said the barking had ruined his retirement and he was unable to work in peace or enjoy painting or gardening.
Next door neighbour Sonhae Lee, a writer, told the court she was forced to move out of her home temporarily in 2007 because of the noise, and another neighbour Nigel Palmer also said it had disrupted his work.
The case against O’Flaherty cost the council £4,920, of which she would be liable to pay £1,500.
Ted Forsyth, head of environmental health at Kingston Council, said: “We take no pleasure from prosecuting her but we need to make sure the noise doesn’t continue and her neighbours can live a peaceful existence.”
Speaking after the sentencing, Mr Palmer said he was grateful to the council for helping to convict O’Flaherty but said: “I don’t think any of us think it’s the last of it.
“It’s just unfortunate this is the way Mrs O’Flaherty is. She seems to relish a fight.”
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