A WOMAN accused of calling a German neighbour "Hitler" has had the case against her thrown out because there was no interpreter for the trial to go ahead.
Jennifer Sherlow was said to have shouted the "racially offensive remark" from inside her home while Birgit Bahmani was in her garden.
But the case against the 31-year-old of Weensland Park, Hawick, Roxburghshire, was thrown out because the Crown had not ordered a German-speaking interpreter for the trial.
Procurator fiscal Graham Fraser had asked for the trial at Jedburgh Sheriff Court to be adjourned to a new date to allow an interpreter to be present.
However, this motion was opposed by defence lawyer Robert More who said Ms Sherlow was anxious the matter was dealt with immediately due to health grounds.
He also added that Ms Sherlow strenuously denied the allegation and pointed out that Ms Bahmani was facing a charge of previously calling her a "Scottish slut".
Mr More said: "This allegation has been made to deflect attention from the prosecution that the complainer faces. It would not be in the interests of justice to proceed further."
Sheriff Derrick McIntyre refused for the trial to be adjourned and when the fiscal said he would not be leading evidence without the witness, the case against Ms Sherlow was deserted.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article