Grandmother convicted of assault after spraying neighbours with disinfectant during lockdown

A grandmother has been convicted of assault after she sprayed her neighbours with disinfectant while cleaning her garden fence because she was “frightened of Covid”.

Countryside warden Jane Downall, 61, used the anti-bacterial spray from Aldi to clean the wooden fence after Samantha Fisher and her daughter Ebony leaned over to talk to another neighbour three doors down.

As Downall unleashed the spray, droplets of the liquid hit the faces of Mrs Fisher and Ebony and both had to seek medical treatment in hospital for suspected burns.

Police had arrived at the property in Heywood, Greater Manchester to find the victims suffering redness to their faces, and later arrested Downall.

Downall, who worked at Daisy Nook country park, near Oldham, was convicted of common assault at Tameside Magistrates' Court.

The court heard Downall had been living next door to the Fishers since 2013, with both parties making repeated complaints about one another.

The incident occurred on April 5 2020, just a fortnight after the Government imposed lockdown restrictions.

Downall said: “I was frightened of Covid and conscious of the two metre rule… I was very conscious that the virus could have been airborne, because at the time, no one was sure how you caught Covid. I didn't want to catch anything. I was very cautious.

"They had been making jokes about the pandemic and there had been exaggerating coughing. I was just conscious about the germs.”

Judge Angela Nield said: "We do not find the appellant made a deliberate action to harm the complainants but her actions were reckless.

“Given the history of antagonism, it made her reckless in her actions resulting in the assault. But it was a momentary event and we regard events on the day in question as being specific to her heightened agitation of the pandemic and the situation she perceived herself to be in.”