DOG RAGE: It's the question dividing Britain. Can you feel any sympathy for the neighbour who killed a dog because it wouldn't stop barking? Here, the dead pet's owners tell their side

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The stone statue of a border terrier sits next to the pond in Alan and Alison Boddington’s country garden in silent memory of their cherished dog Meg, who died last July.

Every time they glance at the carving through the window, it brings back seven years of joyous memories; of skittering paws, a blur of wiry tan and grey-coloured fur and the soundtrack of Meg’s excited barking.

It’s deathly quiet in the Boddington’s garden these days with Meg gone — or rather brutally silenced, for not everyone shared the family’s delight in her playful and sometimes noisy exuberance.

Indeed, the stone effigy by the pond also serves as a painful reminder of how Meg’s life ended — in a bucket of water, drowned by a neighbour so maddened by her yapping he ‘snapped’ in a moment of ‘insanity’.

Tragic tale: Alan and Alison Boddington's son, George, now 15, with the family dog Meg, who was drowned in a bucket by neighbour Stephen Woodhouse because she wouldn't stop yapping

In a case which united the nation’s dog-lovers in outrage, commercial pilot Stephen Woodhouse, 53, was this week given a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting causing unnecessary suffering to an animal resulting in its death in a prosecution brought by the RSPCA.

Suspended by his employers, the airline Flybe, pending an investigation, Woodhouse now has plenty of time to contemplate the restored peace and quiet of his garden, uninterrupted by Meg’s ‘incessant barking’.

Whether he can enjoy it is another matter, for Meg’s ghost couldn’t cast a longer shadow over this pretty slice of Northamptonshire.

'The worst part is, we don't even know if he's sorry for drowning Meg, because he's never once apologised to us': Alan and Alison Boddington reveal their side of the tragic tale, as Woodhouse is handed 12 weeks in jail

‘What he did was despicable. I can’t bear to think of how Meg suffered and never want to see or speak to Stephen Woodhouse again,’ says telecoms consultant Alison, 50, who lives with her husband of 25 years, car dealer Alan, 48, and their children Alexandra, 19, and 15-year-old George.

‘Meg was such a sweet-natured and friendly little dog. She wasn’t just a pet, she was special. She meant the world to us and everyone knew that.’

The Boddingtons bought Meg as an eight-week-old pedigree puppy in 2007 for their daughter Lauren, who was born with severe disabilities. Sadly, Lauren died five years ago from influenza just after her tenth birthday.

‘They had such a close bond. When Lauren was ill, Meg would lie by her cot and when Lauren died it felt like Meg was all we had left of her. Losing Meg reopened all the old wounds of losing Lauren,’ says Alison.

‘The worst part is, we don’t even know if he’s sorry for drowning Meg, because he’s never once apologised to us. What he did was shameful and I think he deserved a custodial sentence. I was praying for it.

‘My only consolation is that he has now been suspended from flying pending an investigation, although I think it’s appalling that he was still allowed to fly in the five months between his guilty plea and sentencing. If someone can snap over a barking dog, what about a crying baby on a flight?’

A new 9ft wooden fence now divides the Boddington’s bungalow — their home for 18 years — from Woodhouse’s home behind. He moved there with his second wife in 2009.

Alison tells me it was put up by Woodhouse after she lobbed an egg at him in a fit of angry despair when she spotted him in his garden soon after he’d pleaded guilty in December. She missed, but the police were called. The incident was ‘recorded’, she says, but no further action was taken.

The towering fence couldn’t be plainer evidence of the bitter, unforgiving silence between these once friendly neighbours. Alison says it’s a ‘godsend’.

It stands directly behind the 6ft fence that used to separate the families; the same fence through which Woodhouse reached to grab Meg by the scruff of neck on July 26 last year.

Homes: Woodhouse's house, left, has a garden backing on to the Boddingtons' land, right

After holding the animal down in a butt of water, he put her body in the boot of his car and dumped her in a hedgerow, returning later, the court heard, to move her and attempt to hack out the microchip in her neck with a knife to remove her identification.

Neighbour Stephen Woodhouse leaving Corby Magistrates court in Northamptonshire after being found guilty of drowning Meg. He argued that he couldn't live with her constant yapping

As the Boddingtons launched a desperate seven-day search, Woodhouse claimed to have no idea of Meg’s whereabouts. He finally confessed to police after traces of the dog’s fur were found in his car boot by a suspicious Alison, along with rope and a knife.

At his sentencing, the court heard he’d told officers he couldn’t cope with the barking after suffering a heart attack in 2013, explaining: ‘The dog was yap, yap, yapping, It was an act of desperation. I had to stop the noise. It was driving me mad.’

Outside the court, Woodhouse admitted killing Meg ‘was a terrible thing to do’, but he has remained silent since, unwilling to elaborate when the Mail later approached him. But an emotional Alison fumes: ‘I can’t accept he just snapped in a moment of madness. Didn’t he stop to think, “What am I doing?” as he grabbed Meg and then held her down in the water?

‘I could understand if he had just lashed out. But to then dispose of her body, knowing that we were desperately searching for her, I find impossible to forgive. He must have known the grief he was causing us.’

While most public support has gone to the Boddingtons, Woodhouse is not without a certain degree of sympathy. Many others have described the ordeal of living next door to barking dogs and owners who remain deaf to the endless yapping.

B ut Alan retorts: ‘I’m not saying Meg didn’t bark, but it’s not as if she was some big guard dog snarling at everyone. She was the most sweet-natured little dog and it wasn’t excessive.

‘If it bothered him so much, he should have said something to us and we would have done something about it. A couple of years before Meg died, we were chatting over the fence and he said, “She doesn’t half bark, that dog of yours”, but it was never mentioned again.’

Alison adds: ‘Other neighbours who live much closer to us have never once complained about Meg’s barking. We never left our dogs in the garden all day and if we felt they were being too noisy, we’d bring them in.’

Alison shows me a number of signed witness statements neighbours provided to the RSPCA stating their opinion that Meg was not a nuisance and did not bark excessively.

And although Woodhouse claimed he had complained to the council about her barking, no evidence of this was produced in court.

Alison shows me an aerial photograph of the two properties in Long Buckby. Far from living cheek-by-jowl, there’s a 120ft paddock separating the Boddingtons’ land from Woodhouse’s home and garden.

She says she could understand if they lived in adjoining terrace houses, but they don’t. As for noise, she claims the racket from Woodhouse’s ride-on lawnmower was just as annoying to them.

Cottage: Woodhouse's home in Long Buckby where he claimed to be disturbed by the dog's barking

Property: The Boddington family's house, whose garden backed on to that of Woodhouse

For what hurts Alan and Alison most in this sorry saga is that they thought they had a good neighbourly relationship with Woodhouse where, if something was really bothering either party, the matter could safely be raised without fear of causing offence. Alan had even sold a car to Woodhouse, who would often pop round for a cup of tea and a chat.

Alan says: ‘I wouldn’t say we were the best of friends, but we were friendly. Steve had been an engineer before training as a pilot, so he’d offer to mend tools for me and I’d invite him on fishing trips.’

Alison adds: ‘We’d been for meals together at the local Indian restaurant and one Boxing Day I invited all the neighbours round for drinks — and he came. We’d wave to each other as I drove past and often chatted over the fence.’

Alison even remembers waving to Woodhouse the morning of July 26 last year as she drove two friends of her son George home after a sleepover, leaving Meg and their other dog, a springer spaniel called Gem, in the garden.

Gone for no more than 15 minutes, Alison was greeted on her return by Gem — of Meg, there was no sign. ‘It was as if Meg had just vanished,’ says Alison. ‘I just couldn’t understand it. The garden was enclosed, and even if someone had left a gate open, she wasn’t the type to run off.

‘I phoned Alan in a complete panic and he jemmied up the decking in the garden in case she’d chased a rabbit and become trapped, but there was no sign of her. Everyone in the neighbourhood must have heard us calling for her.

‘Then we went running down to the canal near our home in case she’d run off, asking if anyone had seen her. I felt quite desperate but never imagined for a second that someone might have harmed her.’

Alison went to the Woodhouses that day to ask them to check their paddock outbuildings, but no one was home. So Alison sent a text message to Mr Woodhouse - and was surprised to receive no reply.

Soon a local team of volunteers had descended to help the Boddington’s search, responding to a plea made by Alexandra on a lost dogs website, and unaware that Meg was already dead.

‘That evening I noticed Steve tending their chickens in the paddock and I called him over to ask if they’d checked for Meg, but he seemed very reluctant to speak which I thought was odd,’ says Alison.

Family: Mr and Mrs Boddington, pictured with daughter Alex, had been desperate to find Meg

Victims: Alan and Alison Boddington were heartbroken by the death of their dog

S he adds: ‘He wouldn’t make eye contact and kept looking down. He was very vague and kept trying to end the conversation. I was very suspicious and afterwards I told Alan I was convinced he had something to do with Meg’s disappearance.

‘But Alan said, “You can’t talk like that, what a terrible thing to think,” and I then felt very guilty for even suspecting such a thing.’

The hunt for Meg continued.

‘We were searching every day from dawn until 11.30pm. Then Alexandra would drive out to search again in the middle of the night without telling us because she couldn’t sleep, worrying about Meg,’ says Alison. 

Alan adds: ‘Two days after Meg’s disappearance, I was sitting outside our local pub with a client when I saw Steve walking with his wife towards us. He looked very uncomfortable, as if he didn’t want to talk to me.

‘Then, reluctantly it seemed to me, he came over and said, “Any luck with finding Meg?” He was acting so strangely, and sounded so nervous, I thought maybe Alison was right after all.’

Good-natured: The couple bought the dog as a companion for their seriously ill young daughter

Their suspicions were confirmed when, later that day, Alison went to their neighbours’ house to speak to them again and, realising they were out, opened the unlocked boot of Woodhouse’s car — the one her husband had sold him — on a hunch.

‘There was no mistaking Meg’s fur in the boot of Steve’s car and I felt sick when I saw the knife and rope,’ says Alison. ‘I was in a terrible state and didn’t know what to do, so I called Alan and we decided to call the police.’

When police questioned Woodhouse, he denied all involvement, but eventually admitted he’d taken the dog because of her barking, dumping her a couple of miles away.

Thinking Meg was still alive, volunteers scoured the area he mentioned, but could find no trace. Five days later, after Alison had tearfully begged for the truth, Woodhouse finally called police and admitted what he’d done.

Alison says Meg’s body was handed over to police by her neighbour, but was so badly decomposed, the cause of death could not be determined. The court heard Woodhouse recovered the corpse from a hedgerow after Alison mentioned Meg’s microchip and — fearing it worked like a tracker device, tried to dig it out with a knife.

‘We were devastated. To lose a cherished pet is a huge blow, but to find out Meg had suffered and died in that horrific manner was unbearable,’ says Alison. ‘If I hadn’t discovered Meg’s fur in the boot of his car, we might never have found out what had happened to her.

‘For a long time I felt very emotional and was filled with hatred for what he’d done to Meg and for keeping the truth from us. It’s just something we will have to learn to live with, just as we did when Lauren died, but the pain never goes away.’

The Boddingtons now have a new dog, a pug-chihuahua cross called Noogles, but Meg is sorely missed. Silenced, like her stone effigy in the garden, but not forgotten.