20 July 2023 , 10:38
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A housewife has been convicted of harassment after she begged her husband to come home then hounded her friends about his whereabouts, when he went out to watch football.
Joanne Healey repeatedly called spouse Steve, who she had been married to for 37 years, on his mobile phone as he was watching Chelsea v Manchester United on TV with friends demanding to know where he was.
But when former aerospace worker refused to take her calls, Healey, 59, rang his friends John and Debbie Ashworth on their landline instead, forcing them to leave their phone off the hook after branded them paedophiles.
Mr Healey, 60, went home when the match finished but his wife was later quizzed by police over the nuisance calls to the Ashworths' home in Rock Ferry, Merseyside. It emerged she had been drinking heavily at the time of the incident.
At Wirral magistrates court, Healey pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to a 12-month community order and fined her £80. She must attend 20 days of rehabilitative activity with the probation service and pay £234 in costs and victim surcharge. A request for restraining order made on behalf of Mrs Ashworth was rejected.
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The incident occurred last October after Healey fell out with friend of 30 years Mrs Ashworth after she was asked to leave a martial arts club Mr Ashworth had founded due to her drinking habits.
In the days leading up to the match, Healey was said to been abusive to Mrs Ashworth over text messages, social media and calls. She was blocked but then Mrs Ashworth began to receive numerous unwanted phone calls to her landline.
On one occasion she was said to have phoned the house phone 59 times in the space of two hours. In a statement Mrs Ashworth told police: “Mrs Healey was unhappy at being told that she was no longer welcome at the club. I told her to stop calling me but she ignored that and continued with her persistent behaviour.
Joanne Healey had been drinking heavily (Joanne Healey/ Cavendish Press (Manchester) Ltd)“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. 'Mr Healey had his mobile phone with him but it kept ringing.
"She was asking him where he was and when he would be home and demanded that he bring the dog back. Steve said that he would be home soon and will bring the dog back soon but he stopped answering his phone and she started ringing my landline instead.
''My son answered the phone to Healey and he told her to stop ringing me. I then told her multiple times to leave me alone and not to contact me again but her reaction was drunken abuse, shouting and swearing at me, calling me and my husband 'paedophiles' and calling me a 'slag'. She even accused me of having an affair with her husband Steve, which is a lot of rubbish.
“I tried not to get into an argument with her so I kept hanging up but she would bring me back. During the calls, she was going on at me to tell Steve to answer his phone. I was trying to tell her that he was watching the football. She was even demanding that he bring the dog back to the house. She was drunk when she was ringing me, as she is usually when she behaves like this.
“Every time she rang I just put the phone down as I did not want to argue. But she would just ring back. 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. In the end, however, I had to put the phone back on because I look after my mum so I need to be able to answer the phone in case there is an emergency.
Healey wanted to find husband Steve (Joanne Healey/ Cavendish Press (Manchester) Ltd)“Once the game was finished, Steve went straight home, but she was still ringing my landline telling me that Steve went home and battered her, which is a load of rubbish.”
Mrs Ashworth later contacted police and Healey was interviewed by police. Mr Lionel Cope prosecuting said: “She said the reason that she was ringing was that her husband had the dog. He had been out since 4pm on October 22 till the early hours of 23rd.
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“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.”
Healey, from Rock Ferry had no previous convictions. Her lawyer Rebecca Boswell said: “Although she like a drink, she is not dependent on alcohol. But she accepts that maybe when she has had a drink, maybe what she has bottled up comes out.
“She 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.''
Sentencing JP 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 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.”