A woman watched remotely on Ring doorbell video footage as a man approached her Penrith home, urinated outside and goaded her.
Off-duty window cleaner Howard Holliday, 53, was in a communal area of an address in the Pategill area on July 11, socialising with his partner and friends.
Aware of that gathering, the resident of a nearby lower floor property decided to leave her home and go to a friend’s address.
There was a background of issues with some neighbours, Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard today.
While away from her home, the woman received a notification on her mobile phone from a Ring doorbell camera covering an area outside her property.
Prosecutor George Shelley told the court: “This shows Mr Holliday purposefully walking towards her bedroom window and proceeding to urinate directly outside it.”
This footage was played in court and, said Mr Shelley, also showed Holliday waving and clearly goading the individual in front of the camera.
In a statement the woman said Holliday’s conduct left her feeling violated, bullied and targeted due to previous encounters in the area.
Several women drinking in the group on that day were said to have issues with the camera’s existence, the court heard.
“I feel this was targeted,” said the woman. “He is smiling, pointing, waving, making faces and knocking on the window. It is disgusting, leaving me feel humiliated.”
The woman was suffering from anxiety and depression, and felt panicked in her home.
Holliday, of Roman Road, Penrith, initially denied causing the woman harassment, alarm or distress, by using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behaviour; or disorderly behaviour. He changed his plea to guilty on the day he was due to stand trial.
The court heard he had 19 previous convictions for 39 offences. His last conviction dated back to 2013.
Holliday told deputy district judge Roger Lowe his offending in July was daft. “I shouldn’t have done it,” he said.
He was starting up a window cleaning business and, he said, had already been punished as the council had ordered him to stay off the street on which the woman lived. That had resulted in him losing work.
The judge imposed a £300 fine, ordering Holliday to also pay £250 costs and £120 to the woman as compensation. In addition he was banned from contacting her for two years under the strict terms of a restraining order.
The judge told Holliday: “It was a stupid thing as I think you clearly acknowledge.”
