London man gets conditional discharge after killing koi

A 76-year-old London man was given a conditional discharge on Tuesday after admitting he killed his neighbor's prized koi carp and damaged a garden pond system, saying the noise from a water pump had "driven him completely insane." Gerry Duffy pleaded guilty at Willesden Magistrates' Court on August 4 to three counts of damaging property and one count of unlawfully destroying fish stemming from an incident in March.

The court heard that Duffy, of Hadley Road in Barnet, had repeatedly complained to his neighbor, Andreas Ptohides, about the noise from the pump that powered the fishpond. Prosecutor Shahid Iftakhar said Duffy had warned Ptohides that if nothing was done, he would "take matters into his own hands." The dispute escalated in March when Duffy climbed into his neighbor's garden and used motor oil and detergent to damage the water pipes and pump, killing five or six koi carp and causing an estimated 565 pounds in damage. The incident was captured on CCTV.

In mitigation, Duffy's solicitor, Elliott Stern, told the court his client had tried to resolve the issue without resorting to destruction. Stern stated that Duffy had been driven to "sheer frustration and lack of sleep"...