A woman threatened to pull a house sale to try to get her daughter to retract a statement alleging assault.

Joanne Fenton, 44, was handed a three month jail term suspended for 12 months after admitting a charge of perverting the course of justice – an offence known in the island as an act against public justice.

Prosecutor Rebecca Cubbon told the Court of General Gaol Delivery that in June last year the defendant had been in the process of selling a property at Cronk Grianagh, Union Mills.

But she had sent a text message to her ex-partner saying she was pulling out of the sale and he needed to take the bed and furniture out of that house and fumigate it.

This elicited an angry response from her ex, in which he told her to ‘get her sh** and get the f*** out, you waste of air’.

This led to Fenton sending a second text message suggesting that her daughter should drop her assault allegation.

She told her ex: ‘I suggest you tell her to retract her statement and drop the charge. I’m not moving anywhere. She needs to retract her statement.’

Defence advocate Stephen Wood said his client had sent the second text on the ‘spur of the moment’ in response to the aggressive text from her ex-partner.

He said the offence was at the ‘bottom end’ of acts against public justice.

Mr Wood said his client wished to get back into employment and hoped to drive a bus for a business. The court heard that the prosecution was offering no evidence on the common assault charge and the house sale did subsequently go through.

Deemster Graeme Cook told Fenton – who sobbed throughout her sentencing – that any act against public justice was an ‘extremely serious offence’.

‘You clearly acted without thinking but the implications could have been profound,’ he told her.

He sentenced Fenton to three months’ custody suspended for 12 months, with a 12-month supervision order.

No evidence was formally offered in respect of the assault allegation and that charge was dropped.