Wirral woman convicted of harassing husband over football

A woman has been convicted of harassment after she repeatedly called her husband while he was out watching football with friends.

Joanne Healey, 59, demanded to know where husband Steve, 60, was while he was watching Chelsea versus Manchester United on television.

When he eventually refused to take her calls, Healey rang his friends and smeared them as "paedophiles".

At Wirral Magistrates' Court, Healey pleaded guilty to harassment.

She was sentenced to a 12-month community order and fined £80.

Healey, of Rock Ferry, Wirral, must also attend 20 days of rehabilitation with the probation service and pay £234 in costs and victim surcharge.

The court heard that in October last year, Mr Healey had gone to watch football at the home of his friends, John and Debbie Ashworth.

In the days before the game, the court heard that Joanne Healey had had a disagreement with Mrs Ashworth and had been abusive to her over text messages, social media and calls.

On one occasion she was said to have phoned Mrs Ashworth's home address 59 times in the space of two hours.

In a statement Mrs Ashworth told police: "I told her to stop calling me but she ignored that and continued.

"Specifically, on October 22 last year Mrs Healey was ringing constantly. I was at home with my husband John, my son and also her husband, Steve Healey. We were all watching a football match on the TV."

She said that Mr Healey's phone kept ringing and that it was his wife, asking repeatedly when he would be home and demanding that he bring the dog back.

Mrs Ashworth said he had agreed. "But he stopped answering his phone and she started ringing my landline instead."

Mrs Ashworth said she had told Healey to stop calling several times but that her reaction was "drunken abuse, shouting and swearing".

"She even accused me of having an affair with her husband Steve - which is a lot of rubbish," she said.

"In the end, we just left the receiver off the hook and put the volume up on the TV so we couldn't hear her shouting down the phone."

Mrs Ashworth later contacted the police and Healey was arrested.

Healey had no previous convictions and her lawyer, Rebecca Boswell, told the court: "She has gone her whole life without coming before the court. I do not think this is where she envisaged herself being."

The sentencing judge, Mary Garvey, told Healey: "It is unfortunate that you are in court today. The calls were persistent and prolonged but we are not going to place a restraining order on you because of the passage of time: it is over eight months [since these events] and there have been no further incidents.

"But it is a warning to you and a lesson to you and we hope that we do not see you before these courts again."

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