By Chris Thomson | posted on May 12, 2018
A WOMAN who confronted her elderly neighbour who on a habitual basis would scream “yabba-dabba doo!” while drinking from the break of day has pleaded guilty to one count of common assault.
On May 3, police prosecutor Mike Russell told Albany Magistrate Raelene Johnston that on the morning of November 24, the 67-year-old man was walking with the assistance of a frame when his neighbour Donna Marie Baxter remonstrated with him “about his shouting in the morning”.
Sergeant Russell said Baxter, 58, grabbed the man around the throat with her hands.
She later admitted confronting, but not assaulting, the man near their three-unit public housing complex at Orana.
Defence lawyer Richard Hickson said Baxter admitted to yelling and “getting right up in his face”.
He said the man regularly drank and took phone calls from 5am, while yelling out his “favourite saying”, the Fred Flintstone-esque “yabba-dabba doo!”.
“His behaviour has significantly improved since the incident,” Mr Hickson said.
“The units are now harmonious and everyone’s getting on well and his behaviour, yelling and shouting in the morning, has stopped.”
Mr Hickson explained that Baxter had yelled “yabba-dabba doo!” in the man’s ear and asked him “How do you like it?”.
Magistrate Johnston acknowledged Baxter, who suffered insomnia, would have felt “frustrated” and been suffering from not sleeping.
But she said the defendant acted in an “inappropriate” manner that would have been “very concerning” to the man who was “in a frail state”.
Baxter was ordered to undertake 30 hours of community work.
