A WOMAN has been cleared of hurling homophobic abuse at her neighbour and threatening her with a baseball bat on Valentine’s Day.

Tracy Crombie, from Clydebank, was alleged to have committed the offences in the common close of a block of flats in Granville Street after a long-running noise dispute.

Ms Crombie denied being in possession of an offensive weapon and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner on February 14. And a jury found both charges against Ms Crombie not proven after a two-day trial.

Ms Crombie’s neighbour told the court the abuse had been directed at her after her young son fell and started crying inside the close while they were returning to the flat occupied by her partner.

The 22-year-old, who no longer lives at the Granville Street property, said: “The next thing I know, Tracy was out on her landing, shouting ‘shut that f****** wean up’. She shouted I was ‘nothing but a fat d***’ and said I was to start using toys.”

The complainer told the court she was in her first gay relationship.

Asked how Ms Crombie’s tirade made her feel, she said: “It hurt.”

Claire Nicholls, prosecuting, asked the woman what happened next. She replied: “The next thing I know Tracy was standing at my back with a baseball bat.”

The woman said she and her son had been pulled inside the flat, but added: “The door got hit with the baseball bat about three times. I was feeling angry, because my son was there, but I was also scared.”

Under cross-examination by Ms Crombie’s solicitor, Judith Reid, the woman said there had been some “tension” between her partner and Ms Crombie, and denied she had “massively exaggerated” her claim to protect herself and have Ms Crombie moved elsewhere.

Ms Crombie, who lived in the flat directly above that occupied by the alleged victim and her partner, did not dispute there had been an argument – but denied using the words alleged by the prosecution.

She claimed she had returned to the close after visiting the nearby health centre and had heard the woman “shouting and bawling”.

Ms Crombie told the court: “I shouted down and asked them to keep the noise down. I called them a pair of muppets.

“I heard them screaming and bawling in the close, making loud noises, and some of the words they were using towards each other were unbelievable.”

Ms Crombie said her alleged victim’s assessment of the situation was “not correct” and added: “I would never complain about kids at all.”

On the accusation of homophobic abuse, Ms Crombie said: “That’s not true.”

Ms Crombie faced charges of being in possession of an offensive weapon and of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing, brandishing a baseball bat or similar object and repeatedly striking the door of the flat.

Both charges, according to the Crown, were aggravated by “prejudice relating to sexual orientation”. But the jury delivered not proven verdicts on both charges after the trial concluded at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday.