Judge barks at conviction for letting dog bite neighbour

A judge was ordered to pay more than £3,500 in fines and costs after storming out of a magistrates court shouting that her conviction over a pet dog's attack on a neighbour was a "f*cking travesty". Judge Beatrice Bolton, who has presided over scores of criminal trials in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the North East, muttered a brief apology after yelling that she would never set foot in Carlisle magistrates court again. She had earlier been told to stop chewing gum by the court usher as a couple of former friends claimed that her pet German shepherd, Georgina, had gradually turned her into "the neighbour from hell".

Bolton was convicted of failing to control the pedigree bitch, which attacked the couple's student son as he sunbathed and chatted to his girlfriend on a mobile in the garden they and the judge shared. She was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £930 prosecution costs, £275 compensation to 20-year-old Frederick Becker and a £15 victim surcharge. District judge Gerald Chalk, who had to prompt her to apologise for swearing, also refused to allow public funds to meet the cost of her expert witness as "his evidence had not assisted the court". Bolton said after the sentence that she was in debt and needed a year to pay the fine. Her recent expenses over the case included a £5,000 fence dividing her part of the garden from the rest of it.



The court heard Georgina had been the subject of a "dog log" kept by the Malias, who have lived next door to the judge and her partner for 20 years in Rothbury, Northumberland. Initially friendly relations gradually deteriorated and reached a nadir with the attack this summer. Becker was left bleeding and bruised by two apparent bites from the dog, although CCTV cameras installed by the Malias gave an unclear picture of exactly what had happened. Becker told the court the alsatian had run at him "making a lot of noise". He kicked it away after the attack, and was given "a sort of half-hearted apology" by the judge. He added: "If I am blunt, it was with an air of not really being concerned."

Ben Nolan QC, defending, said Bolton had invited the Malias to visit and get to know the dog, but they had declined. She had also fenced off her family's part of the garden but had taken the barrier down when the Malias said it spoiled their view. Bolton has presided over scores of cases at Newcastle, including a dispute between neighbouring families in Washington, County Durham, over allegedly noisy sex sessions. That ended with an order requiring the offender to quieten down.