Knife-wielding woman threatened to kill neighbour and burn his house down

A knife-wielding woman threatened to kill her neighbour and burn his house down after being asked to speak more quietly on the phone.

Gabriella Batchelor, 23, was at her mother’s home in Belsize Avenue, Peterborough, on 7 September 2020, when she began a late-night telephone conversation.

Batchelor was talking loudly so the next-door neighbour banged on the wall to tell her to quieten down.

Police said that minutes later, Batchelor had made her way to the neighbour’s front door, with a kitchen knife in her hand, and banged on it with her fist, shouting abuse.

She threatened to burn the house down and set fire to cars outside and shouted, “I am going to kill you, I am going to kill your family”.

After her tirade of abuse, she went back inside, and the police arrived shortly afterwards.

Batchelor refused to let officers into the house, but they managed to force entry and arrest her. Officers found the knife hidden under a pillow on a bed.

Batchelor, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to making threats to kill and having a knife in public.

She appeared at Peterborough Crown Court on Friday (17 February) where she was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for 24 months, handed a 12-month community order, and two-year restraining order.

PC Katie Brown said: “Batchelor’s threatening behaviour was completely unacceptable.

“No one should feel scared or at risk in their own home and this type of abuse will not be tolerated.”