Don’t mention the war, ‘Dambuster’ man is told: Court orders teacher to stop taunting German neighbour

March 20th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Geoffrey Butler harassed his neighbour by loudly playing the Dambusters theme tune and wartime songs
Row started when he fell out with his neighbour over a 6ft strip of land

By
Eleanor Harding

UPDATED:

21:14 EST, 19 March 2012

In court: Geoffrey Butler, 54, was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment of his German neighbours

A teacher who harassed his neighbours by loudly playing the Dambusters theme and wartime Vera Lynn songs has been handed a court order banning him from being nasty to Germans.

Geoffrey Butler subjected Reinhard and Kathryn Wendt – who moved here from Germany in 1999 – to four years of ‘hell’ by playing the music, whistling patriotic tunes and talking loudly about Nazis while pretending to be on his phone in the garden.

The 54-year-old had denied the hate campaign, but was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment by magistrates yesterday. He avoided being sent to jail only after the Wendts pleaded for leniency.

Instead, magistrates imposed a three-year conditional discharge and ordered Butler to pay the £1,800 court costs.

The maths teacher – who is now unemployed and on benefits – was also given a restraining order which requires him not to use gestures or language which might be considered offensive to German people.

He is barred from playing loud music and making abusive comments and will be hauled back before the courts if he breaks the terms of the orders.

The neighbours’ relationship soured shortly after the German couple moved to the riverside village of Lower Upnor, Kent, in 2007. It involved a dispute over the ownership of a tiny strip of land next to their homes.

Dispute: Neighbours Kathyrn and Reinhard Wendt, who is German, outside Medway Magistrates Court

Mr Wendt accused Butler of whistling
the war tunes and regularly playing them from his car stereo. He also
told the court he had recorded the teacher playing one of Winston
Churchill’s wartime speeches.

The 62-year-old claimed the harassment was ‘like waterboarding’.

Events
came to a head last April when the Wendts claimed they were sitting in
bed and saw Butler taking a picture of them through the window.

The
teacher, whose family members served in the RAF including one in the
617 ‘Dambusters’ squadron, was arrested the following month.

Reinhard Wendt and his wife Kathryn live on the left opposite Mr Butler. The couple moved to the village of Lower Upnor in Kent in 2007

At
an earlier hearing, Mrs Wendt, also 62, tearfully told the court: ‘I
just want to live a peaceful life. I haven’t looked for any trouble.’

In his evidence yesterday, Butler claimed he had been called names and wrestled to the ground by Mr Wendt.

The German ‘charged’ at him with a garden chair shouting ‘get off my land, big head’, he claimed.

But
giving the verdict at Medway Magistrates Court, chairman of the bench
Colin Smith said: ‘We find Mr and Mrs Wendt to be compelling, credible
and consistent witnesses.

‘We find Butler’s evidence to be evasive and contradictory, both in court and in police interview.’

A court heard Mr Butler blared out the themes to Dambusters, Dad¿s Army (pictured) and Rule Britannia

A court heard Mr Butler blared out the themes to Dambusters, Dad’s Army (pictured) and Rule Britannia

He said the magistrates believed the harassment was directed towards Mr Wendt because he is German.

Sentencing,
Mr Smith said the offence would usually require a period of custody to
allow reports to be prepared but he would make allowances because the
Wendts requested leniency.

Butler said he would appeal against the verdict.

After
the case, Mr Wendt said: ‘The last five years have been difficult for
us. You can’t really describe it. I don’t think people understand. You
can’t move freely around the house without getting attacked verbally.
It’s just very difficult living like that.

‘It’s been hell. It’s really been awful. We’ve been having nightmares and not sleeping.

‘We are happy with the outcome but I’m still frightened of him because he still lives there. We are sure that we will move now.’