Major’s CCTV catches neighbour puncturing pool
WHEN Jason Little, a decorated Afghanistan veteran, came home to find his garden flooded and swimming pool empty, he had his suspicions.
His neighbour had long complained of the noise of the family’s two daughters playing in the pool, and Mr Little had noticed odd goings-on around the large metal tub.
He set up CCTV to monitor the garden – and it turned out that Stephen Gee, 63, a retired engineer, had crept in at night and cut a hole in it.
A court heard yesterday that Mr Little, a major with 2nd Bn the Yorkshire Regiment, who won the Military Cross for displaying inspirational leadership in battle in 2008, reviewed video from his camera and saw his hooded neighbour tiptoeing up his garden path at 4.30am to the pool.
Gee, a retired engineer, was seen disappearing behind the pool for 16 seconds before re-emerging and sneaking back to his house, having holed the pool, causing thousands of litres of water to gush out.
In an attempt to cover his tracks he left a note for the Littles, explaining he had woken in the night to the sound of flowing water and found their garden flooded. Poole magistrates’ court heard how the attack in June 2016 was the culmination of a four-year dispute between the neighbours over the noise made when Little’s daughters, then aged eight and 10, used the pool.
It was already there when Mr Little and his wife moved into the detached house in Puxey, Dorset, in 2012, but Gee soon objected to the girls using it. Mr Little, 46, said: “Whenever they used the swimming pool, [he] shouted over the fence at them and would play loud music and stare at them. Before we had CCTV things happened to the swimming pool that I couldn’t explain, so we had cameras installed.”
Pc Charlotte Goddard suggested to the court that the pool had been struck with an axe or similar blade. She said CCTV footage appeared to show Mr Gee carrying something heavy in his right hand as he approached the pool. Gee denied criminal damage, saying he had been woken by his dog’s bark and had gone to investigate when he noticed the garden was flooded.
He said the pool was dilapidated and suggested it emptied after an old tear finally split. But finding Gee guilty, District Judge Stephen Nicholls said: “His account is not credible and I am satisfied he entered the land and caused damage to the pool.”
Gee was fined £500, ordered to pay £650 costs and £250 compensation and was issued with a restraining order.
Afterwards Mr Little said: “He threatened my children. I’m just relieved he won’t be able to make nasty comments to my family any more.”