When a Man Loves a Woman ‘played loudly to lesbian pair’
A NEIGHBOUR played When a Man Loves a Woman loud enough to be heard by a lesbian couple whose cockerel’s crowing he claimed was devaluing his home, a court heard yesterday.
Neil Dymott, 56, allegedly launched a campaign of harassment against Helen Richardson and Paula Holland in the Hampshire village of Marchwood by playing excessively loud music every time their cockerel crowed.
Mr Dymott is alleged to have provocatively played Percy Sledge’s Sixties soul hit and sworn and shouted at the couple, Southampton magistrates heard. Giving evidence, Miss Richardson said: “On one occasion, he shouted across the road that I was a ‘f------ lezza’ and proceeded to play When a Man Loves a Woman on repeat for an hour. But mostly it was Radio 2 and Queen music. I could hear it clearly – the music, the words – from inside the house.”
The court heard Mr Dymott came into the couple’s garden and took photos of their home and on one occasion pushed Miss Richardson against a fence, leaving her with a cut on her arm. Another time, she claimed, Mr Dymott walked into her driveway and said: “Don’t you f------ mess with a multi-millionaire. My barrister is going to get you for £50,000 because you have devalued my house.”
Even after the couple’s cockerel was killed, Mr Dymott allegedly continued to harass his neighbours – blaming them for their neighbour’s cockerels, and then for a cockerel crowing in surrounding farmland. He denies two charges of harassment. The trial is expected to conclude today.