A woman who subjected her next-door neighbours to 10 years of threatening and abusive behaviour has been sentenced to one month in prison.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Arjita Chawla (54), formally of Merton Crescent, Mount Saint Annes, Milltown, Dublin 6, pleaded guilty to two counts of engaging in threatening or abusive words or behaviour against her two next-door neighbours, Coleman and Anna Byrne, on dates between February 28th, 2011, and July 26th, 2021.
Passing sentence on Friday, Judge Martin Nolan said Chawla “became obsessed with her neighbours”, adding it was quite an unusual case which started out as harassment, but the State accepted a lesser plea.
“The facts are that over a longer period of time, the accused abused and caused the injured parties considerable stress,” the judge said. This went “way beyond a neighbourly dispute,” he added.
The judge said he had read the reports handed into court on behalf of Chawla, adding there was mitigation in the case in the form of her guilty plea and remorse.
He said he felt Chawla should undergo a custodial sentence, sentencing to one month in prison on each of the two counts, which he ordered to run concurrently.
Judge Nolan also ordered Chawla to have no contact with the Byrne family and not come within 100 metres of their address for the next 15 years.
Garda Inspector Damien Kelly told Shaun Smith, BL, prosecuting, that Chawla lived in a townhouse-style property next door to Mr and Mrs Byrne, with shared external stairs leading up to both front doors.
The Byrnes owned their home and have lived there for over 20 years. The accused also owned her property, and both neighbours were civil to each other in the beginning. Each house had two parking spaces located outside the houses.
Concerning behaviour
Gda Insp Kelly said Mr Byrne started to notice concerning behaviour from Chawla, who would park her car parallel in both of her parking spaces and drive the bonnet of her car up to the driver or passenger door of her neighbour's car, blocking them from entering the car.
Mr Byrne said in his statement that Chawla could spend anything up to 20 minutes manoeuvring her car into this position.
The court heard that Chawla called Mrs Byrne a “c*nt” and a “wh*re” and referred to Mr Byrne as a “paedo”.
Mr Byrne said in his victim impact statement that she brought him to the District Court many times, with all the cases being dismissed.
Represenatives from the local estate company were dispatched to investigate claims made by the accused against her neighbours but found no evidence to support her claims.
The court heard that gardaí arrived at the Byrnes' home over 100 times on foot of complaints made by Chawla, including on Christmas Eve and while they were having a fourth birthday party.
She set up CCTV on a tripod in her front window and also had a second, more discreet camera on her window.
On May 22nd, 2019, Chawla’s home was searched and she handed over a notebook which gave a detailed account of her neighbour's activity. A garda also found a digital recorder and a USB key.
Video recordings
Gda Insp Kelly said Chawla had 445 video clips of her neighbours, sent 345 emails of complaint about the Byrnes family to the management company, and she sent over 300 emails to the Donnybrook district office.
Ms Anna Byrne read a victim impact statement to the court and said Chawla “subjected us to years of abuse on my family”. She said Chawla once said she “was not surprised that I killed my own mother, who died when I was four-years-old”.
Faeces were collected by the accused and placed at the door of the Byrne home and in Mrs Byrne's bicycle basket, the court heard. These were believed to be dog faeces.
Gda Insp Kelly agreed with Barry Ward BL, defending, the spat was only between his client and the Byrnes and that no other neighbours were involved.
He said a custodial sentence would be a retrograde step, and his client would suffer disproportionately and it would do much more harm than good.
Mr Ward asked the court to take into account his client's guilty plea, and her mental health issues. He handed medical reports from her doctor and neurologist into court.
