Cambridge woman who allegedly yelled 'f****** n*****' at neighbour to fight prosecution

Dog own Katrina Noone at her Cambridge Home. Photo / Leon Menzies

A Cambridge woman charged with calling her neighbour a f****** n***** claims it's a simple misunderstanding of her dog's name.

Katarina Noone, 72, says she was annoyed at her dog, a 12-year-old black labrador, after it had pooed near the exit to her back door last week.

She told the Herald she yelled 'argh f****** nica' and not the other more insulting N-word.

Noone said it was a case of a simple misunderstanding due to her dog being called Nica.

Next thing she knew the police were at her front door and she was arrested and charged with using insulting or offensive language within hearing of a public place. If convicted she could be fined up to $1000.

She appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Wednesday when she pleaded not guilty.

Neighbour, and complainant, Susie Belling said she was hanging out her washing before taking her daughter to school when the alleged incident happened.

She said she ran inside to grab her phone to record the tirade to hand over to police.

Noone showed the Herald around her backyard on Friday afternoon as an excitable Nica jumped around playfully.

"I was playing with the dog in the garden, minding my own business, and suddenly the police are at my door arresting me for using insulting language. And I really don't know why because, as far as I knew, I wasn't insulting anybody.

"My neighbour took offence to me calling my dog Nica and said it was addressed to her, and it wasn't."

She said her dog had diarrhoea at the time and he pooed near the exit to her back door and she stood in it.

"I stood in it and one wasn't too happy with that, so that's what I said, what I was calling to the dog, because I didn't want him to do it again.

"I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding ... maybe she just heard it all wrong."

Noone, who has worked for Te Wānanga O Aotearoa for four years as an IT consultant, said she never used the N word.

"No, no I'm not a racist," she said.

Noone is on bail with conditions not to raise her voice or use offensive language until a hearing in November.