Wisteria-killing woman used crutches to attack neighbour

A "genuinely out of control" woman has been found guilty of destroying her neighbour's wisteria plant before repeatedly hitting her with a crutch. Atidel Boutara Cook was convicted of criminal damage after destroying the flowering plant belonging to her upstairs neighbour Pei Wong and then assaulting her. Cook, 50, who denied both offences, swore at Wong and hit her once on the forehead and twice on the chest with her crutch after being confronted about cutting down the plant last December, Highbury Magistrates' Court heard. Wong and her husband Louis Scott own the freehold of their Victorian house in Tottenham and live upstairs, while Boutara Cook lives in the ground floor flat. Wong said her husband had seen the defendant cut down the wisteria and pull out other plants in their front garden. The couple, who said they did not usually interact with Boutara Cook despite having been neighbours for 20 years, went downstairs together to confront her, with Wong filming the encounter on her phone. Scott said the couple had asked their neighbour "in calm, polite terms" to stop what she was doing and told her they were not happy with it. He said they had not approached Boutara Cook who "ra