Ruckus at the riding school as receptionist beats up her sister-in-law
WORKING together at a family-owned riding school, sisters-in-law Kirstie Whittington and Hayley Dickens weren’t the best of friends.
And tensions finally came to a head when instructor Miss Dickens accused receptionist 39-year-old Whittington of failing to do her job properly.
Whittington, a mother of two, started punching her sister-inlaw repeatedly round the head, a court was told yesterday. Mrs Dickens says she still has hearing problems six months after she was struck on her ears, eye and jaw on May 21.
Whittington claimed she acted in self-defence after Mrs Dickens attacked her. But district judge Julia Newton convicted her of assault causing actual bodily harm.
Mrs Dickens, whose mother owns Gillian’s Riding School in Enfield, north London, said there was confusion that day over what horses were allocated for her clients, disrupting her lessons.
She felt it was ‘unprofessional’ and made a complaint in which she mentioned Whittington, Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court in north London heard.
Later she was confronted by Whittington as she came out of a stable. Mrs Dickens said: ‘She was quite clearly very upset about something.
‘She was at this point... using her hands gesturing, pointing quite abruptly, aggressively towards me. She then continued with “Don’t ever do anything like this again”.’
Eventually Whittington started insulting her, calling her ‘embarrassing’, and ‘a joke. Mrs Dickens added: ‘She was quite nasty. She then pulled her fists up and then proceeded to hit me repeatedly in the head with both fists. I had my hands up and was pushing her back.
‘She hit me around three times by my right eye, she hit me over my right ear, she hit my left ear and left jaw. There was probably five or six blows that made contact with my head.’
After visiting two hospitals Mrs Dickens was told she had concussion. She still has issues with hearing in her left ear.
Lily Roberts-Phelps, defending, asked Mrs Dickens: ‘You really don’t like Kirstie do you?’ Mrs Dickens replied: ‘I’m not her biggest fan. I’m not her best friend.’
Mrs Dickens also admitted that she didn’t have ‘the best relationship’ with her brother, Whittington’s partner.
Miss Roberts-Phelps suggested her story was untrue and part of a ploy to get Whittington in trouble for ‘vengeance’.
Whittington denied punching Mrs Dickens, insisting she had spoken calmly to her, asking her ‘don’t slag me off to other members of staff ’.
Whittington claimed: ‘She turned around and said to me, “My mum doesn’t even think you can do your job”.
‘All she kept saying to me was, “It’s all you, it’s all your fault, it’s always you”.’
She claimed Mrs Dickens was talking through gritted teeth and grabbed her coat and her hair. She agreed that she and Mrs Dickens had ‘never had a close relationship as some sisters-in-law do’.
But finding Whittington guilty, the judge said: ‘There are two quite different versions of events.
‘Both pieces of evidence of Mrs Dickens is corroborated firstly by photographs showing the injuries to her face and secondly by the medical evidence.
‘There is no other possible explanation as to how she got the injuries other than how she described. The defendant in my mind was furious because she had wrongly been accused of doing her job improperly and took it out on Mrs Dickens.’
Whittington, of Enfield, was bailed before sentencing on December 21.
‘I’m not her biggest fan’