A WOMAN accused of racially abusing a Polish man over a garden fence will face prosecution for a second time following a High Court test case.
Jane Distill, 34, was visiting her grandmother in Meadowcroft in July last year when she was alleged to have blown her top.
Next door neighbour Marek Nykiel was watering his flowers when he said he smelt cigarette smoke over the fence.
Before hearing a door bang, he claimed he recognised Miss Distill’s voice as she said, “Polish f***ing bastards, f*** off!”
Mr Nykiel complained, but Miss Distill was cleared of a racially aggravated public order offence by Chippenham magistrates in January.
But now the Director Of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, has successfully challenged that decision at London’s High Court. The ruling means that the magistrates must now reconsider the case against Miss Distill, who denies any wrong-doing.
The outcome of the case hinged on whether the garden was part of her private 'dwelling house'.
The magistrates found that it was and that Miss Distill therefore could not be guilty of the offence.
Peter Grieves-Smith, for the Director Of Public Prosecutions, argued they were wrong about that.
He said a “dwelling” is defined by law as “any structure, or part of a structure, occupied as a person’s home".
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