Woman, 81, who poured her own urine onto the patio of her neighbour’s £5 million Chelsea home as often as three times a day is convicted of harassment
Her trained nose has given Anastasia De Brauwere Brozler a sought-after skill in the perfume industry.
But it added to her torment when she became the victim of an elderly neighbor who repeatedly threw urine on the patio of the perfumer’s £5million Chelsea home, a court has heard.
Mrs De Brauwere Brozler, 57, has spent months trying to find the source of the “disgusting smell” that filled the basement garden of the monumental terrace, leading her to fear her perfume oil might be contaminated.
She eventually gained access to CCTV footage from the residents’ association, which showed 81-year-old Janine Mackinlay pouring her urine from a plastic jug over the railing up to three times a day.
The commercial landlord, who earns £7,000 a month renting out properties, has now been convicted of harassing Ms De Brauwere Brozler and her lawyer husband Alain, 60.
Janine Mackinlay (picture arrived at City of London Magistrates), 81, was seen pouring her urine from a plastic jug over the railing up to three times a day
Anastasia De Brauwere Brozler and Alain De Brauwere leave the magistrates of the City of London
Scene in which Janine Mackinlay threw urine from her front door (photo) into the basement patio of De Brauwere
She was also convicted of causing criminal damage to the couple’s property and ordered to pay £2,922 in compensation for repairs on top of £646 in costs.
Austrian-born Mrs Brauwere Brozler, who has created bespoke fragrances for ‘princes, ballerinas, actors and politicians’, told the City of London Magistrates’ Court that the couple had called in experts to investigate what they had initially believed to be a sewer leak.
‘Every time you opened the door, a pungent smell of urine came into the house and we couldn’t open our window. There is also a fan that is permanently open and that sucks the smell in,” said the mother of two.
‘It was absolutely disgusting. I had to put scented candles everywhere. We couldn’t use the kitchen and I couldn’t work there, even though I need running water.’
A gas expert told the couple the smell was urine, after which Dutch-born Mr Brauwere, a Harvard Law School graduate and City financial adviser, heard his neighbor’s door slam after liquid splashed onto the patio. The couple eventually caught Mackinlay in the act on CCTV footage taken by the residents’ association on the street, which overlooks the Duke of York’s grounds near Sloane Square.
Mrs Brauwere Brozler said: ‘We saw our neighbor throwing urine on our terrace sometimes three times a day.’
When the couple, pictured, confronted Mackinlay, she told them to ‘go to hell’ and ‘back to their own country’, the court heard.
‘I have a trained nose. I am a perfumer who works from home and I know I am foreign and that is a big problem for our neighbor,” Ms Brauwere Brozler, who runs a company called Creative Perfumers London, told magistrates.
Janine Mackinlay threw urine from her front door (seen left) into Mrs. Brauwere Brozler’s basement patio
Mackinlay, who earns £7,000 a month renting properties, has now been convicted of harassing Mrs De Brauwere Brozler and her lawyer husband Alain, aged 60.
‘She is extremely angry with me and is verbally abusive to me and my children.’
Mackinlay, a widow supported in court by her son and daughter, did not deny throwing urine from her door but insisted the urine was not directed at her neighbors’ property and that she had not intended to do any cause intimidation.
“I have an arthritic knee and a collapsed vertebra and I cannot always go upstairs or downstairs to the toilet due to mobility problems,” she told the trial. She held up the plastic can and said, “This is the weapon of mass destruction.
‘I pee in it and throw it away. I’m afraid to say I’m throwing it out the front door. There is no malice and I have never damaged anyone’s property. It’s not very ladylike, I understand.’
However, she called the costs mentioned in the court for repairing the damage ‘laughable’.
Chairman of the bank Jeffrey Manton told the court: ‘This is very disturbing for the people who live next door.’
Mackinlay was also given a 12-month restraining order banning her from having contact with the De Brauwere family.