A woman convicted of racially abusing her New-Zealand-born neighbour by calling her a "fat Australian" has had her conviction overturned by appeal judges who ruled that being called "Australian" is not racist.
Chelsea O'Reilly was called a "fat Australian b**** during a dispute in Macclesfield, in northern England, last year.
Ms O'Reilly, who has dual British and New Zealand citizenship, was giving a statement to police about a domestic incident between her neighbour, Czech-born Petra Mills, 31, and her husband.
Two officers told Macclesfield magistrates' court they had heard Mills use the word "Australian" during her drunken rant.
"She called me a stupid fat Australian b****," O'Reilly said.
"Because of my accent there can be some confusion over my nationality. She knew I was from New Zealand.
"She was trying to be offensive. I was really insulted. She said she would kill my dog. Bizarrely she then blew raspberries at me like a child."
Mills accepted that she had shouted out, but denied being racist, telling the court at the time: "I did not use the word 'Australian'. I used to live with an Australian person. She was very nice."
But the court found she had called Ms O'Reilly an Australian in "hostility" and found her guilty of racially aggravated public disorder.
Now, she's had her conviction quashed by the Chester Crown Court, which concluded the use of the word 'Australian' was not racist, according to the Manchester Evening News.
The "stress and embarrassment" of her conviction had caused Mills, a freelance interpreter, to move to Wales.
She told the paper it should never have gone to court.
"I don't feel like this is a victory."
