A bookshop owner has been convicted of assault by beating for “drenching” a stranger using a watering can.
Peter Churcher, 65, claims he accidentally splashed Rosina Foster while he was tending hanging baskets from an upstairs window.
But a court heard evidence from a victim’s friend and another witness that it was deliberate.
Magistrates found Churcher guilty and ordered him to pay fines and costs totalling £1,160.
Speaking after the case, he said: “I was just watering my plants in the same way I've done for 20 years.
“I have done it thousands of times with no problems. But this time all hell broke loose...
“I heard a bit of noise outside. No one said ‘stop watering’, but I came down and saw the two women.
“They were not even really wet. They said I had thrown water on one of them and soaked them through to the bone.
“The water doesn’t even come that fast out of the spout. Yet it was claimed in court she was drenched. The court convicted me on that basis. How can I drench the lady with water from such a small spout?...
“They claimed it was assault by beating and I have now got a conviction. God knows why.
“I have never been in trouble with the court... It is ridiculous. I looked it up and there is no mention of anyone else being charged for an offence like this.
“There was a case with a hose but nothing like mine.”
Plymouth magistrates dismissed his claim the water ended up on Ms Foster by accident outside the shop in Bere Alston, Devon, last July.
Churcher was ordered to pay a £153 fine, compensation of £200, prosecution costs of £775 and a victim surcharge of £32.
Assault by beating is a form of common assault where violence has been used.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: “He told the court his version of events but this was rejected. The court decided it was a gratuitous act and he showed no remorse.”
Devon and Cornwall police said: “Police received allegations of an assault... Mr Churcher attended a voluntary police interview and was later summonsed to court to face a charge of common assault.”
