Jodie Marsh Faces Legal Trouble: Charged with Assault in Heated Animal Dispute with Neighbor

Jodie Marsh, a former glamour model, faces assault charges following an incident where she allegedly placed her hands around a neighbor’s neck during a dispute about her animals.

Marsh, 47, admitted to “losing her temper” with the neighbor, whom she accuses of engaging in a “campaign of harassment” against her.

She asserts that the neighbor had been recording the animals at her sanctuary, Fripps Farm, located in Lindsell near Braintree, Essex.

According to Marsh, the neighbor trespassed onto her property and manipulated footage to make the animals appear emaciated.

Previously, Marsh has expressed that online harassment has severely impacted her “life dream” of operating an animal sanctuary.

Fripps Farm is a sanctuary that houses over 250 animals, including goats, horses, alpacas, emus, lemurs, and reptiles.

The former bodybuilder could face six months in prison after she was charged with common assault. 

She is due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court tomorrow. 

Jodie Marsh, 47, pictured with a horse in her animal sanctuary Fripps Farm in Essex

47, said she ‘lost it’ with her neighbour after he carried out a ‘campaign of harassment’ against her

Marsh (pictured in 2003) is a former glamour model, media personality and bodybuilder

Speaking about the incident, she told The Sun: ‘I put my hand on his neck because I leaned in to whisper to him.

‘I can’t even remember what I said because I was so upset. It lasted around 30 seconds.

‘I’m scared to sleep in my own house. I’m scared to go out.’

She insisted she did not harm her neighbour in the outburst.

An Essex Police spokesman said: ‘At around 12.40pm on Friday 16 January officers were called to an address in Lindsell to reports of a woman behaving aggressively towards a man and assaulting him.

‘It was further reported that verbal threats were made.

‘As a result of further enquiries, charges of common assault and using threatening/abusive/insulting words or behaviour have since been authorised against Jodie Marsh, 47, of Lindsell.

‘She is due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Friday 17 April.’

Marsh appeared in the ITV series Essex Wives in 2002 and went on to feature in several reality shows and magazines.

However, she turned her back on the limelight to run the sanctuary.

The media personality last year had an application for lemurs to kept at her sanctuary rejected.

It was then overturned after she argued that online trolls had been behind a campaign against her.

She told the court: ‘I’ve wanted an animal sanctuary since I was five years old – this is my life dream.’

Marsh also said that ‘everybody in the public eye has trolls’, adding: ‘They lash out, they pick on you, as in my case.’

‘When I was bodybuilding they trolled me for that, when I was modelling they trolled me for that; now it’s the animals,’ she said.

The court heard Essex Police, Essex Fire and Rescue Service and the RSPCA had not raised any concerns over the application for the lemurs, an endangered species from Madagascar.

A judge said there was ‘considerable animosity between Ms Marsh and the members of the local community’.

But he added: ‘Ms Marsh may not be popular in the surrounding area but, based on the evidence given to this court, I conclude that she is a person who genuinely cares for her animals.

‘Ms Marsh is not, and has not been, responsible for any harm or ill-treatment [of the animals in her care].’

Marsh also defended taking a meerkat called Mabel to the pub.

Marsh said she had ‘wanted an animal sanctuary since I was five years old’ and gave up the limelight to open the sanctuary

The former model founded her animal sanctuary Fripps Farm in Lindsell, Essex, in 2020

She said she took the meerkat to a pub ‘on a few occasions when I was hand-rearing her’. 

‘The pub I would take her to was a friend’s pub a mile from my house,’ she said. ‘It’s a food pub, not a drinking pub. It’s never busy in the week.’

She said she would go and get a ‘bowl of chips or something for my dinner then come back’.

‘Most of the time when I did take Mabel to the pub nobody even knew she was there, she was in my jumper or in her case,’ she said.

She said that ‘it’s not illegal to take a meerkat in a pub’ and that Mabel ‘was hand-reared from a baby, she lives with me in the house as well’.

Marsh also had a run-in with Paul Weller after she tried to flog his memorabilia in an online auction to raise funds for Fripps Farm.