Man poisoned next door’s fishpond in bullying row that lasted for decades
A MAN tried to take revenge on a neighbour he claims bullied him as a child by pouring bleach into his fish pond, a court heard yesterday.
Colin MacNeil was caught trying to poison Graham Taylor’s pets by a CCTV camera.
The security system’s motion sensors detected MacNeil in the early hours of March 25 this year and he was seen ‘pouring what appears to be a bottle of household bleach into the pond’.
Mr Taylor, an Army veteran, was able to save his pets, which were described in court papers as ‘an endangered animal’, and the police were called.
MacNeil, who also threatened to kill Mr Taylor’s pet cat, initially denied the offences and was due to stand trial but he later pleaded guilty.
Defence lawyer George Mathers told Wick Sheriff Court yesterday that 38year-old MacNeil had been ‘bullied’ by Mr Taylor when he was a child and said ‘that relationship has remained acrimonious ever since’.
The court heard how MacNeil was ‘afraid’ of Mr Taylor but that he accepted his behaviour was ‘entirely inappropriate and disgraceful’.
Mr Mathers said his client had been an alcoholic for a number of years and had been ‘very drunk’ at the time of the incident. He added: ‘He [MacNeil] accepts full responsibility and is ashamed of his actions.
‘He really is genuinely sorry for taking his anger at the man out on the fish.’
Fiscal David Barclay, prosecuting, told the court that MacNeil, of Castletown, Caithness, and his neighbour appeared to ‘have had some difference of opinion’.
He said: ‘It appears that the accused’s neighbour’s property has a camera with motion detectors showing the rear garden area and within the rear garden there are three pet fish that live in the garden pond.
‘It appears that the accused was seen in the early hours of the morning to go into the rear garden and pour what appears to be a bottle of household bleach into the pond.’
He explained that Mr Taylor called the police and was thankfully able to remove the fish ‘prior to there being any significant affect on them’.
Sheriff Ian Miller said the poisoning of the fish was ‘an indirect attack’ on Mr Taylor, and warned MacNeil, who was charged under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, that a custodial sentence had been considered in the circumstnces.
He also said he agreed that it was ‘entirely disgraceful conduct’ but that he took into account the fact MacNeil had ‘expressed a degree of regret’ at what he had done.
The defence had suggested that a compensation order could be imposed but in response the sheriff asked: ‘Who would I be compensating?’
He said the only ‘potential injury’ that could have occurred was to the fish and he added: ‘I’m not in mind to compensate the fish.’
Instead he imposed a threemonth curfew order, which means MacNeil must remain at home between 7pm and 7am each night.
MacNeil, who also admitted to kicking a police vehicle, refused to comment as he left court yesterday.
‘Inappropriate and disgraceful’