Woman who repeatedly called husband while he watched football is convicted of harassment
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Cavendish Press (Manchester) Ltd
A woman who repeatedly called her football-loving husband has been convicted of harassment following a guilty plea.
Joanne Healey, 59 constantly called her husband of 37 years as he watched Chelsea v Manchester United on TV with his pals last October.
Each time, Joanne demanded to know where Steve was, and it got to the point where her husband would refuse to answer her calls.
After failing with Steve, Joanne contacted his friends John and Debbie Ashworth, with boozed-up Joanne labelling them as 'paedophiles'.
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While John went home after the match, Joanne was questioned by police over the nuisance calls, something that eventually made its way to court.
And at Wirral magistrates court, Joanne pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to a 12-month community order and fined £80.
She must now attend 20 days of rehabilitative activity with the probation service and pay £234 in costs and victim surcharge.
A request for a restraining order made on behalf of Debbie Ashworth has since been rejected.
Before the big match took place, Joanne is said to have been asked to leave the martial arts club John founded due to her drinking habits.
Joanne was also said to have sent abusive messages and calls to Debbie, with the latter blocking Joanne.
However, Debbie was then bombarded on her landline, with Joanne said to have rang the home phone on one occasion 59 times in just two hours.
"Every time she rang I just put the phone down as I did not want to argue. But she would just ring back," Debbie told the police.
"In the end, we just left the receiver off the hook and put the volume up on the TV so we could not hear her shouting down the phone."
Debbie later phoned the police, leading to Joanne being questioned.
"She said the reason that she was ringing was that her husband had the dog," prosecutor Mr Lionel Cope said.
"He had been out since 4pm on October 22 till the early hours of 23rd.
"She said she didn't want her husband but the dog. She said that when she rang they just kept putting the phone down on her which annoyed her.
"She explained that she had been drinking more lately, and more at the time of the offence.”
Joanne's lawyer stated that, although she like a drink, she is not dependent on alcohol. However, she accepts that maybe when she has had a drink, what she has kept bottled up comes out.
Her lawyer added: “She [Joanne] has gone her whole life without coming before the court. I do not think this is where she envisaged herself being. She is currently undergoing further assessment in relation to arthritis, she is having X-rays on her hips and back and also blood tests.
''This is one occasion of telephone calls. This is someone who has come to court for the first time and is never to come back.''
Prior to this harassment charge, Joanne had no previous convictions.