A Playboy model’s neighbour has been cleared of assault after the cover girl’s phone was smashed during their furious bust-up.
Estonian Anna-Maria Galojan, 43, gave evidence at City of London Magistrates’ Court, claiming she was punched and pushed by upstairs neighbour Silva Odette, 52, outside their Kensington homes.
Their decade-long feud came to a head when the pair, who both reside in Campden House, a block of seven social housing properties on Peel Street, clashed on the afternoon of March 24.
Galojan was with her friend Paul Halloran at the time, who had been supporting her in the trial until he was ejected after Odette accused him of intimidation from the public gallery by constantly glaring at her.
Recalling her version of events in court, Galojan said: ‘I was standing outside, waiting for my friend to join me for lunch when the defendant came and approached us in a rude and aggressive way.
‘She was shouting and screaming and being extremely aggressive as always and accusing me of following her, which I never did because I am terrified of her and avoid her.’
Galojan explained she started filming the encounter when Odette approached and began ‘screaming and shouting’ at her.
Odette asked her to stop recording, but she defended her actions in court by saying it was ‘the only way to defend myself’.
Playboy cover model Anna-Maria Galojan, 43, and her friend Paul Halloran pictured outside City of London Magistrates’ Court
The former model claimed her neighbour then ‘punched’ and ‘pushed’ her twice in the chest, adding: ‘It was very strong, she is very strong and was very angry.
‘I was so horrified and terrified. She was extremely aggressive.’
She tried to collect her broken phone after, but ‘there wasn’t much left’, so Mr Halloran used his phone to call the police for her as Odette ‘stared’ at them from the stairs ‘looking very proud and happy with herself’.
During cross-examination from Odette’s lawyer Hamza Adesanu, Galojan told the court: ‘It wasn’t the first time she has attacked me and she was arrested before.
‘I never intended to provoke her and I didn’t approach her and she has an injunction to stop approaching residents of the block.
‘I was shaking and crying. I had been attacked and I am not used to such aggressive behaviour.’
The trial heard Odette has complained about the ‘conduct and behaviour’ of Galojan, but the complainant replied: ‘It was not the first time or last time she has been arrested for being aggressive towards neighbours.’
Another alleged incident between the two in 2014 saw Odette arrested at the block after Galojan called the police claiming she had ‘attacked’ her, but no further action was taken.
Galojan’s upstairs neighbour Silva Odette, 52, who she has been in a decade-long feud with, pictured outside City of London Magistrates’ Court
Referencing Galojan’s criminal record, defence lawyer Mr Adesanu asked: ‘You have a record for dishonesty don’t you? Are you an honest person?’
Galojan became a political figure in her home country in 2007 after she released her self-funded ad campaign running for the Estonian Reform Party during the Parliamentary elections.
Her career in politics came crashing down in May 2011 when she was convicted of forging documents and embezzling €60,000 from the non-profit organisation European Movement Estonia that she was CEO of.
She was sentenced to 22 months in prison, of which five months was real jail time and the rest conditional, but fled to London before she could be detained.
Galojan was arrested in February 2012 and finally extradited back to Estonia in 2015 to serve her sentence.
She eventually returned to the UK and is now a member of the Conservative’s Campden Ward Committee within the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
Prosecutor Robert Simpson objected to the line of questioning around her past conviction, but Mr Adesanu argued: ‘Her honesty is a matter of issue. Her trustworthiness goes to the heart of the case.’
Continuing to press Galojan, he asked: ‘This complaint today is revenge against Ms Odette for making complaints against you, isn’t it?’
When questioned by police, Odette claimed she was deliberately pushed into the wall by Mr Halloran while her hair was pulled by a ‘smirking’ Galojan.
She told the trial: ‘Since 2018 she has been filming me to get a reaction to get me evicted. She was filming and smirking and said she was in a public street.
‘I got fed up and snapped and grabbed the phone, threw it on the floor and kicked it and then smashed it against the wall,’ she admitted.
Anna-Maria Galojan appeared on the front cover of Estonian Playboy in 2009 after becoming famous for her involvement in politics
The neighbour then claimed the wall ‘collapsed with the weight of Paul’ as Galojan was allegedly ‘grabbing’ her hair.
‘With his weight he pushed me against the wall and the wall collapsed,’ she said.
Odette told the trial she ‘never touched’ Galojan, adding: ‘I took my anger out on the phone because she was filming me. That’s it, nothing else.’
She said she wishes she could go to her home ‘peacefully’ without ‘playing these games’, accusing Galojan of ‘playing the victim’ and being ‘very good at creating stories and the distortion of reality’.
‘This has been going on for 10 years, she is harassing me,’ she said.
Referring to Galojan and Mr Halloran she added: ‘Both of them are so dishonest and are liars.’
Earlier, prosecutor Mr Simpson told the magistrates: ‘The two of them are residents in the block and on the day, the defendant approached the complainant in the street.
‘Ms Galojan has her phone out and is filming and this defendant knocks the phone out of her hand and smashes the phone and pushes her in the chest.
‘You will see a short clip of footage demonstrating the state of anger this defendant was in.’
The footage, recorded by Galojan, was played in court, showing an angry Odette demanding the filming stops before lunging forward to grab the mobile.
Odette was found not guilty of assault with bench Chairwoman Margaret Diane Lennan announcing: ‘There is a lack of credible evidence in this case and it is unproven.’
However, she had already pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage to the phone and was conditionally discharged for twelve months and ordered to pay £500 compensation to Galojan.
