I hope some of you legal people will be able to answer my questions. There is a whole long history, this is just the latest incident.
Neighbour lives next door to me. We each have a ground floor flat, each flat has its own area of garden nearest to its door and there is a communal garden at the back shared by all the flats. Yesterday afternoon I was outside doing some gardening. Dog was out there with me, on a long lead tied to a stake. Neighbour's son opened their door and my dog barked (once) at him. The boy shouted at my dog. I was standing by my doorway and called the dog to me. Neighbour then says to his son, very loudly so that I can hear - Next time go out there and batter the dog to death. I will go out there and kill the f*ing thing with you.
Is threatening to kill an animal a crime? Obviously the neighbour was saying this to intimidate me. There have been several previous incidents where he behaved aggressively, shouting and swearing at me. Would several of these incidents over the course of a year constitute harassment of me? He has never made a specific threat of violence against me, only against the dog. If I reported all of this to the police, what would they be likely to do?
Thanks for your help