Cleared in trash case

A FATHER accused of striking his neighbour with a wheelie bin in an affluent Gold Coast suburb has been found not guilty of assault.

Christian Edwin Wenzel was alleged to have used a wheelie bin as a “battering ram” against his neighbour, Pamela Fisher, on July 6, 2020, as part of a long-running neighbourhood dispute.

In handing down the verdict in the Southport Magistrates Court on Friday, Magistrate Mark Howden said Ms Fisher had “waged a vendetta” against Mr Wenzel over many years.

Magistrate Howden accepted the evidence of Mr Wenzel and his wife that Ms Fisher yelled: “I’m glad your father’s dead” to Mr Wenzel just before the bin dispute.

In comparison, he found Ms Fisher to be “evasive and vague”.

Magistrate Howden said CCTV footage that captured the altercation was “critical” evidence. “(Mr Wenzel) had been abused and insulted on this day by (Ms Fisher).

“He did not intend to strike (Ms Fisher) with the bin, but did so after the bin hit the kerb.

“At this point in time he was deprived of the power of self-control. In my view there had not been time for his passion to cool.

“His actions were not disproportionate and the subsequent injuries to (Ms Fisher) were of a minor nature.”

Magistrate Howden said he found Mr Wenzel not guilty of assaulting a person over 60 because the prosecution was unable to exclude the defence of provocation beyond a reasonable doubt.

Outside court, Mr Wenzel’s defence lawyer Bill Potts said Ms Fisher’s evidence against his client was “utter garbage”.

“Ms Fisher attempted to trash my client’s good name and reputation, rubbish his father’s memory, and her evidence was found to be utter garbage by the magistrate.”

CCTV footage showed Ms Fisher move Mr Wenzel’s bin. Mr Wenzel moved it back. Ms Fisher leaves her home and moves the bin again. The footage then appears to show Ms Fisher kicking rubbish that had fallen from the bin back towards Mr Wenzel’s home. He came out to return the bins to their original spot.

It appears on the footage that Ms Fisher blocked Mr Wenzel from moving them. It is then the altercation starts.

Mr Potts said Mr Wenzel had been “forced to flee” the affluent suburb of Paradise Point as a result of the eightyear “neighbourhood war”.

The court was previously told that there had been “an extraordinary history of complainants” between Mr Wenzel and Ms Fisher, including through the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal and the Queensland Building and Construction Commission.

Ms Fisher had been convicted of assaulting Mr Wenzel on a previous occasion and had taken him to QCAT so many times that she had been described as a “vexatious litigant”.