A mum and her son shouted abusive comments at a couple after the death of a seven-week-old child, a court was told.
Jo Burgess and Joshua Hamilton went to the home of Jacqueline Parker and Adam Kightley on July 8 after a dispute, and made various abusive comments in the exchange which followed.
Kettering Magistrates’ Court heard that there was a relationship issue between the two families.
Burgess, aged 43, and Hamilton, aged 22, both of Fawsley Road, Northampton, were charged with using language which would cause fear of violence, which they denied, and were due to stand trial for.
But after discussions between the two legal teams, the charge was reduced to a lesser one of language causing harassment, alarm or distress, to which both pleaded guilty.
Victoria Jempson, prosecuting, said: “The parties are known to one another and there was a relationship issue between the two families.”
Kevin Lynch, mitigating, said Jo Burgess had made a statement to the police in connection with investigations into the death of the seven-week-old child, and that there had then been conflict between the two families.
He said: “They have both made comments which are unacceptable and distasteful. But clearly this is an issue which has made people emotional. This is not entirely an excuse for my clients, but it is a reason.”
The pair, who have no previous convictions, were given 12-month conditional discharges and ordered to pay £175 costs. During the altercation, Jo Burgess’s husband, Colin, threw a brick through a window, which hit Parker on the head. He admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm in August, and will be dealt with at Northampton Crown Court.
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