Enniskil­len mum Diana Rud­den apologises for smashing up neighbour’s automotive in row over cat poo

Diana Rud­den (50), of Cavandale in Enniskil­len, realized some classes in paw and order after being con­victed of crim­inal dam­age, com­mon assault and dis­orderly beha­viour at Enniskil­len Magis­trates Court final week.

When requested in regards to the incident, which took place in June, animal lover Rudden stated there was extra to the story.

She stated: “I know it sounds pathetic and people wonder how it could escalate like this. I wish it never happened and I shouldn’t have done what I did.

“I woke up to one of the cats on top of my curtain pole in my bedroom one morning and I just saw red.

“I’d already had to give up gardening, and one of my dogs three days before last Christmas, because of those cats.

“This was after months of them destroying my garden and stressing out my dogs. When I went to discuss it with the owners I had a red mist moment.

“A restraining order has been taken out against me and I am working with probation, which I welcome as the whole neighbourhood has turned on me, which is difficult.”

Earlier court docket hearings have been instructed how the vic­tim known as 999, saying that Rudden had smashed up her automotive with a base­ball bat, dam­growing older the win­dows and the wing mir­rors.

They instructed police of points with Rud­den, who additionally owns a number of small birds, and stated she had earlier been com­plain­ing about cats enter­ing her backyard.

She was arres­ted and was being taken into cus­tody, however police diver­ted to the South West Acute Hos­pital as a consequence of con­cerns over Rud­den’s well being.

Outside the hospital, she turned abus­ive in direction of officers and was fur­ther arres­ted for dis­orderly beha­viour.

“We (she and her neighbours) have been getting on fine for years until recently when they got a litter of kittens and all hell broke loose,” Rudden stated.

“They started destroying my garden and defecating everywhere. My Frenchie kept getting sick from eating it, no matter how hard I tried to pick up after them.

“I took up gardening during lockdown but had to give it up because of all this.

“The cats drove my poor dogs mad and I was just fighting a losing battle.

“I ended up having to put bubble wrap on the inside of the windows to stop the dogs from hurting themselves.

“There was an altercation with the people in question and things started to get worse from then on.

“I have enough going on without this. I just want peace.”

Rudden’s bar­ris­ter, Ciaran Roddy, instructed the court docket final week his cli­ent accep­ted it was an “extremely con­cern­ing incid­ent” however had no prior report.

Mr Roddy stated she had points with cats foul­ing in her backyard and it caus­ing her dogs dis­tress.

She had proven “con­sid­er­able insight” into her beha­viour and had co-oper­ated absolutely with professional­ba­tion, he stated.

Speaking yesterday, Rudden added: “Thank God it’s all over. It was completely out of character for me to behave in that way.

“I’m an intelligent person, but that was an unintelligent move that day.

“I shouldn’t have done it and obviously I regret doing it.

“It has been torturous, one of the worst experiences of my life.”

Dis­trict Judge Alana McSor­ley instructed Rud­den “this was a com­pletely dis­pro­por­tion­ate action on your behalf” and ordered her to com­plete 40 hours of com­munity ser­vice and an 18-month professional­ba­tion order.

She was additionally ordered to pay £300 in com­pens­a­tion.