Blind friend, guide dog 'threatened'

Margaret Hadley. Photo / Janna Dixon

An Auckland woman has been charged with threatening her blind neighbour and the woman's guide dog, but she claims it's all "a storm in a teacup" and she's "nowhere near mad".

Margaret Hadley, 57, is due to appear in the Auckland District Court on September 3 over threatening to kill her neighbour and former friend, Margaret Martin, on August 20.

She is also charged with intent to frighten and threatening to injure Martin and her guide dog, Aisha.

The women have been neighbours for about three decades in the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert, a neighbourhood filled with many grand bungalows valued near the million-dollar mark. Their children grew up as friends.

Hadley alleged the charges were all over a "misunderstanding" and she was yelling abuse that night at "louts" on the street outside her home.

She said cars in their street had been vandalised recently so she was asking about six young men to "get on your way".

She said Martin heard her "rantings" and thought they had been directed at her and called the police. Hadley, who is battling cancer, said police arrested her and she spent a distressing night in the cells.

"There were no threats to kill. I had had a couple of drinks, but I was nowhere near drunk and I'm nowhere near mad," she said.

She said she would also never have threatened her neigh-bour's guide dog as she loved animals. She showed the Herald on Sunday her grey, frail and incontinent 23-year-old oriental cat Mitsouku and said she loved her so much she would nurse her to her death.

The Herald on Sunday approached Martin for her version of events but she would only say that she was a victim and did not wish to take part in any article. But one of her sons told the paper his mother had been harassed for decades by Hadley. He had hoped his mother would speak out.

Hadley's lawyer, Dan Rawlings, said: "There's a long history between these two ... it's a neighbours at war situation."

Friends of Hadley include businessman Clive Head and Titirangi identity Graham Gordon, star of a recent Film Festival documentary called Gordonia and owner of the property at which the TV show The Cult was filmed. They said Hadley was harmless.