A ‘genuinely out of control’ woman who hit her neighbour with a crutch after cutting down her wisteria has been found guilty of criminal damage.

Atidel Boutara Cook, 50, called Pai Wong a ‘f***ing b****’ before launching the assault – whacking her once on the forehead and twice on the chest.

The heated encounter took place on December 17 last year at Stanhope Gardens in Tottenham, north London, Highbury Magistrates’ Court heard today.

It is said to have begun after Ms Wong’s husband claimed he had seen Boutara Cook cutting down the wisteria and pulling out other plants in the front garden as he returned home from work that evening.

The couple, who said they usually do not interact with the defendant, went downstairs together to confront their neighbour, with Ms Wong filming the encounter on her phone.

Boutara Cook, who owns the freehold of the Victorian house along with her husband Louis Scott, denied both offences.

The pair live upstairs while Boutara Cook lives in the ground-floor flat, the court heard. 

Giving evidence, Ms Wong’s husband said: ‘We went to the porch of the front door of the property and we asked our neighbour to… I forget exactly what we said but in calm polite terms “please could you stop what you were doing” and said that we weren’t happy with what she was doing.

‘We didn’t approach her.’

Atidel Boutara Cook (pictured), who attended the court with what appeared to be a red walking frame, was told twice by District Judge Oliver not to interrupt while her neighbours gave evidence

Pei Wong is pictured leaving Highbury Magistrates Court this afternoon. She said she was ‘shaking’ at the time of the alleged attack

The couple, who said they usually do not interact with the defendant, went downstairs together to confront their neighbour after the wisteria was allegedly cut down. A house in Stanhope Gardens adorned with wisteria is pictured

He added: ‘When she noticed my wife was filming her, she seemed to rather lose control of herself, started screaming abuse and waving her arms, she grabbed my wife’s phone.

‘She also then came up to my wife and struck her a number of times with her crutch.

‘I was genuinely worried for my wife’s safety at this point because the behaviour of our neighbour seemed genuinely out of control,’ Mr Scott said, adding that he ‘caught’ his wife as she fell backwards after being struck.

Asked how she felt at the time of the alleged attack, Ms Wong said: ‘I would say that I was shaking.

‘I will let you know that I couldn’t believe that she repeatedly continued to hit me even though I didn’t say a single word to her.’

Boutara Cook told the court she accepted she cut the wisteria but said the plant had been ‘dead’ and was affecting the air quality inside her flat.

‘Everything they made outside, it’s mine because we give them £12,000, £11,000,’ the defendant said of the couple, adding of the wisteria: ‘They plant it but we give them the money.’

The court heard the defendant had not checked her leasehold agreement or whether she had a legal right to destroy the plant before cutting it and was ‘not aware’ she would need permission to do so.

Ms Wong and Mr Scott, who are architects, said Boutara Cook had right of access to use the front garden to reach the property and for storing her bins.

Addressing Boutara Cook, the judge said: ‘I find you guilty of assaulting Ms Wong by assaulting her three times with the crutch. I’m sure the plant belonged to the complainant and Mr Scott.’

He added: ‘In any event, I’m afraid I find your evidence to be palpably untrue and I reject it. I am sure that you are guilty.’

‘I’m not here to litigate 20 years of problems between neighbours,’ the judge said.

‘You just stay away from each other,’ he added to the defendant as he released her on conditional bail ahead of sentencing on May 6 at the same court.

The court was told both the defendant and the alleged victim had lived in the same building for around 20 years.

Ms Wong told the court she and her husband owned the freehold of the building and had bought the leasehold to the first and second floors.

The couple, who are both architects, said the defendant had right of access to use the front garden to reach the property and for storing her bins.

A defence lawyer suggested to Ms Wong that it was she and her husband who had attacked Boutara Cook, to which she replied: ‘I didn’t assault her, I didn’t scratch her’

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Bilal Miah, defending, put it to Ms Wong that Boutara Cook had previously asked the couple to maintain the wisteria as it was causing damp in her property.

But Ms Wong said: ‘The defendant never asked us, never in writing.’

She added: ‘No, the defendant never spoke to me, never ever I talk to the defendant.

‘The defendant never talks to us never ever, it’s always go to the legal, the lawyers, we never received any letters about the wisteria plants or any other plants causing her problems.’

Mr Miah suggested to Ms Wong that it was she and her husband who had attacked Boutara Cook, to which she replied: ‘I didn’t assault her, I didn’t scratch her.

‘The defendant come to me and with her crutch – she hit me.’

Boutara Cook, who attended the court with what appeared to be a red walking frame, was told twice by District Judge Oliver not to interrupt while her neighbours gave evidence.