A WOMAN was labeled “fat shit” and had her flowers ripped off during a bitter feud with her neighbor, a court heard.
Janine Carden, 49, who was a witness at the Manchester Arena Inquiry and her late partner John Pratt were allegedly victims of foul-mouthed abuse by their neighbour.
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The alleged explosions came from 50-year-old oil and gas engineer Paul Griffith when they intervened in a dispute he was having with another neighbor.
Griffith, who was accused of having a “short fuse,” reportedly complained about the lights and a security lamp that Janine and John installed outside their home, which helped other neighbors park their cars at night.
It was also alleged that he said: “Here she comes, the fucking fat one” when Janine returned home after visiting her dying mother in hospital.
And he was reportedly seen pulling stems from his passion fruit plant before throwing them in the garden.
In a flashpoint, Griffith posted a photo on Twitter that was later retweeted by a local councilor of John’s trailer with the caption: “The mess my neighbor kindly left outside my house last month.”
He also took photos of the couple’s property and looked in the windows, he alleged.
And when Janine and John were enjoying a barbecue, Griffith allegedly leaned out the window and shouted, “Ooh, let’s all have sausages” before closing it.
The pair went to the police and Griffith was accused of harassment, but John, 54, a retired station manager for Greater Manchester Fire Brigade, died for undisclosed reasons before being able to testify at the trial.
Janine, from Frodsham, Cheshire, was on duty as manager of the northwest Fire and Control Center the night a terrorist bomb killed 22 people after an Ariana Grande concert in 2018.
At Chester Magistrates Court, she said she was left “sickened” by the abuse she alleged Griffith subjected her to.
“I already felt like crap and was lacking confidence,” said Janine, who left the fire department after the tragedy.
“I was afraid to go out alone without John because of Mr. Griffith’s behavior. This only made me feel worse about myself and I became upset and very distressed.
She added: “It might not seem like much, but it’s when it’s every day and all you want to do is sit in your own garden – we just felt like we couldn’t. We are not aware that we did anything to provoke it.
“We were just trying to mind our own business. We didn’t talk to him, we tried to avoid him. But leaving the house when he was there seemed to get him into trouble every time.
“I was scared of conflict and actually happy to be on my property and not in the garden where he could get to me.
”There was a time when my mother was in the hospital and I visited her every day. I was coming home and he was at the window making faces at me and shouting, ‘Here she is, the fucking fat one.’
“My mother was seriously ill with COPD and heart failure and died just a few weeks ago.”
The rivalry began after Janine, who now runs a bath products company, and John moved to next door to Griffith in 2017.
She told the hearing: ”Mr Griffith had a problem with a neighbor on the other side and my partner asked him: ‘Is she a Cool Madam, why be nasty to her? But it seems to have started from that point.
”He reported us to the council because of the fairy lights in the garden and also our security light which illuminates the parking area and which the other neighbors found useful.
“On one occasion my partner was putting tools in the boot of his car when I heard a commotion and Mr Griffith was being very loud, shouting and swearing a lot.
”Mr Griffith said to my partner, ‘What are you looking at?’ but because of his aggressiveness and tone of voice, John kept his eyes on him, as he thought it best not to turn his back on him. Eventually another neighbor intervened and thank God he came at that time.
“The incident made me sick. You should feel safe in your home, but I was physically shaking and couldn’t stop shaking.
”At a barbecue we had, Mr. Griffith opened the window and said in a funny voice, ‘Ooh, it’s sunny, let’s all cook sausages’ and slammed the window.”
The incident made me sick. You should feel safe in your home, but I was physically shaking.”
Janine Carden, 49
Janine said that at one point she wanted to move out because she felt the stressful ordeal would last forever.
She continued: “Daily I would have to tell John my location and when I was coming home so he could watch so I wouldn’t have to see Mr. Griffith.
“I felt like a prisoner in my own home. John was looking forward to retirement. He had known his retirement date for 30 years. He was looking forward to the next chapter.”
In a statement written before he died, John said: “Mr Griffith was initially polite to us, but after a short period he began to display angry behavior and animosity and to try to influence and dictate what we do with our property.
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“During those early days this was mainly directed at Janine, but on one occasion I was putting my toolbox in the trunk of the vehicle when Mr. Griffith returned home in his own vehicle, got out and in an aggressive tone said : ‘What are you looking at? at the?’
”I answered ‘You’ – but the reason for looking at him was because of previous experiences when I was in his presence. We are wary of him because he is unpredictable in his behavior. I don’t trust him around me.
“Mr Griffith called me an idiot five times during this incident and pushed me in the chest with both hands. On another occasion I was putting rubbish in the bin when Mr Griffith blocked my path with a car, looked at me and walked away shouting the word ‘c**k’.
”We were also made aware of social media photos of my property posted by Mr Griffith on the Cheshire West and Chester Council Twitter page and a Conservative councilor retweeted them. It was my trailer and I used it to store trash.
‘UNPREDICTABLE BEHAVIOR’
”My partner returned home after visiting her elderly mother in hospital, who has heart and lung problems. She entered our road and parked the vehicle. But he was standing at the window and could be heard shouting: ‘Here she is, the fucking fat one.’
“Later, when Mr. Griffith opened the back door of his car, I heard it hit Janine’s vehicle. I said, ‘Do you mind not hitting my car with your car door,’ but he said, ‘Do you mind moving this fucking car? trash. I tell you what we will do. I’ll move it, should I?
“After he moved my bin, which had hit my other bins, he said ‘Get that damn post out of my border’ followed by ‘f***ing kn** head’. “I said, ‘You’ll find the dumpster is on my property.’ He said, ‘What are you going to do about it? Why don’t you call the police, you idiot?
“He gave me the middle finger. “I said, ‘Get a grip’ but he said, ‘Fuck you, you idiot’ and then went home.
”The other day, we arrived home from a craft market and discovered that our passion fruit plant was on the ground. ‘We looked at the CCTV footage and saw that Mr Griffith had reached into our garden and pulled until it broke and thrown the pieces into our garden.’
John added: ”Before we moved into our property, my partner and I regularly walked to the war memorial and stopped to look at in cash in front of what would be our house. When we moved in, we felt like we had found the perfect home for ourselves and our children. But it soon became clear that all was not well. We felt like we had to comply with a list of unofficial rules.
“I never thought I would be subject to such problems with a neighbor in Frodsham. This caused great suffering. I can’t like being close to my house. I don’t feel safe in his presence due to the behavior shown towards me and Janine.
BADLY SEASONED FEUD
Griffith, who has since moved house – but just nine doors away – denied the harassment and refuted claims that he called Janine “fat”.
But he admitted throw insults John by saying he was provoked by being recorded.
He told the court: “He had six cameras pointed at my property. They used to point to my room and I didn’t like that. I would open my curtains on a Sunday morning and he would stand there looking at me.
Griffith said he was doing laundry when the couple were having a barbecue and added: “I was saying, ‘For God’s sake, I’m cooking sausages outside. Let’s all cook sausages outside when there’s smoke.” It wasn’t very friendly.
“They were trying to grow ivy on my property and said if I cut any I would have to give it back. I didn’t want it to harm my property, so what I did was pull the ivy off my property.”
He added: “I already sold my house to get away from it. I just didn’t want any trouble. I’ve never hit anyone in my life.
“And I won’t do that for the rest of my life. I pushed him in self-defense.
“My intention was not to show fear and to show that I would not feel intimidated in my own home.”
The case was postponed until later.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
