Kelly Pengelley, 39, of 15, Rougeval, St Peter Port, denied assaulting a woman, causing criminal damage to the front door of the woman’s home, and assaulting two children aged 13 and one.
She had previously denied carrying out unauthorised modifications to a computer – the other woman’s mobile phone – in order to impair the reliability of the data held on it, but changed her plea to guilty before the start of her trial on the other matters.
She will be sentenced in May after a probation report has been prepared.
The first witness was the young boy, whose evidence was via a pre-recorded video interview, and who was cross-examined via video link.
He said he had been in his garden on 20 September, and a teenager was having an altercation with another youth.
The boy said Pengelley had arrived, grabbed one boy by the throat and thrown him against a nearby car. She had also kicked the front door of the house open, pushing a woman – the complainant – inside, against the door.
In cross-examination, the boy denied claims from Advocate Chris Green that the woman had damaged the door herself and that Pengelley had not grabbed the teenager, nor pushed the other woman.
The complainant said in evidence that the assault had followed the altercation between two youths outside her home. She had taken a picture of the incident. Pengelley had come to the house and assaulted one of the youths.
She left but returned soon afterwards and barged into the complainant’s home, pushing her out of the way. This led to the woman’s baby, who was in her arms, hitting her head.
The defendant grabbed the woman’s phone and took it away. Advocate Green put it to the woman that she had damaged her own door in an effort to incriminate Pengelley, but she denied this.
The defendant did not give evidence, but in her interview with police had denied assaulting anyone and damaging the door. Pengelley said that the complainant had been videoing the altercation between the youths and laughing, so she had taken her phone. It was later returned by another.
A defence witness from the same estate, said she had seen the young witness attacking another boy with a pole while the complainant videoed it on her phone.
She had also seen the woman kicking her own front door.
Pengelley had not done anything violent or aggressive, she said, but had grabbed the complainant’s phone.
A man, a relative of Pengelley’s who lived on the same estate, said he had heard the complainant shouting and seen her ‘donkey kicking’ her own front door.
In summing up, Advocate Green said the absence of evidence from the 13-year-old about being assaulted was a big hole in the prosecution’s case.
He highlighted inconsistencies from the prosecution witnesses.
Judge Graeme McKerrell said the evidence from the boy was ‘confident, clear and concise’ and he did not come across as having been coached. He had responded to Advocate Green’s cross-examination like an adult.
He was also satisfied with the evidence from the complainant, but not by that of the defence witnesses.
In light of this, he found Pengelley guilty on all charges, and adjourned sentence.
