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A long-running dispute between two Illawarra women took a horrifying and rather putrid turn earlier this month when one threw a bucket of compost containing excrement at the other. The story - messy in more ways than one - was revealed in Port Kembla Local Court on Thursday, as the woman responsible for hurling the stinking mass, 45-year-old grandmother Sian Payne, was warned she faced a possible jail sentence over the incident. The court heard Payne and the victim had known each other for more than two decades, as the victim had at one stage been in a relationship with Payne's brother. However, there were ongoing issues between the two women, with Payne claiming only recently the victim had threatened her pregnant daughter, and bad-mouthed her on Facebook. In court on Thursday, defence lawyer Alex Dimos said it was this provocation that made Payne snap on the afternoon of January 12. However, the court heard while both women agreed the faeces flinging incident took place, their accounts of how it unfolded differed significantly. The victim, who was working at the time of the incident, claimed to police she had pulled up outside a house in Croome Road at Albion Park Rail ahead of a scheduled appointment when Payne pulled up behind her, got out of the car and began banging on her driver's side window. The victim said she wound down the window a small way and told Payne she was going to call the police. As the victim reversed on to the roadway, she said she heard Payne say "I'm going to follow you wherever you go", and saw her take a green and blue bucket from another person who had also been in the car. The victim said as she went to drive off, Payne threw the contents of the bucket through the open window, saturating the interior of the car with "a foul-smelling substance, which the victim believed to be faeces", police documents before the court said. Payne then drove off, while the victim waited for police. Meantime, in court on Thursday, Payne told a different story through Mr Dimos. She said she did follow the victim to the Croome Road premises, but only after the woman had yelled abuse at her and gestured rudely when the pair saw each other at a roundabout a few minutes earlier. She conceded she did go to the victim's vehicle and "get in her face", telling her to stop bad-mouthing her and threatening her children. However, Payne claims the victim then grabbed her by the hair. Payne said when she eventually broke free from the victim's grasp, the woman continued to act aggressively towards her, prompting Payne to pick up a bucket lying on the front lawn of the house and throw it at the car. "It was a small bucket ... full of compost and faeces," Mr Dimos said. "She threw the contents of the bucket towards the vehicle ... only a small amount fell in the car." He said Payne disputed any suggestion the victim was substantially covered in the bucket's contents. Magistrate Roger Prowse said the differing accounts could only be settled by way of a hearing on the facts, and set the matter down for March 19 at Albion Park. He also strongly rejected Mr Dimos' suggestion the matter was a trivial one that warranted the non-recording of a conviction against Payne.

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