Charges for displaying a UVF flag were dropped.
Debbie Giebler (43) from Livingston, Scotland, has been fined for behaving in a threatening or abusive manner that was likely to cause fear or alarm by playing and singing an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) song inside and outside her home last year.
Police were called to her home on July 10th last year to deal with complaints from her neighbours about the music, which they said had been playing from the 4th to 10th July ahead of the Orange Order’s 12th July celebrations.
Giebler, a mother of five, did not attend court to defend herself, but her lawyer told the judge that “her family has a tradition of affiliation to the Orange Order and it’s normal for them to celebrate around this time for it falls on the 12th of July.”
“She didn’t think she was doing anything wrong but she now accepts it must have caused great offence to anyone listening to that,” the lawyer said.
“I think her remark to the police officers pretty much summed up her position.”
Giebler had told police she “never had any bother” from neighbours, but was fined £400 for singing and playing the UVF song, having pleaded “guilty” to behaving in a threatening manner.
The offense was aggravated by what the court accepted was religious prejudice.
She did however plead “not guilty” to breaching the Terrorism Act 2000 by displaying the flag of a proscribed organisation at her home, in a plea the court accepted.
The UVF was formed in 1966 to combat the growth of Irish nationalism, with the terror group murdering some 500 people during the Troubles, among them 33 people in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974.