Terrified couple felt threatened by ‘hammer wielding’ neighbour after giving evidence against him in court
The couple's garage went up in flames TWICE following the incident which they believe is connected to their neighbour
JANE and Brian Johnson were forced to live like prisoners in their home by their neighbour, after he allegedly turned out to be an aggressive hammer-wielding criminal.
The couple shared their hellish tale tonight on Channel 5’s The Nightmare Neighbours Next Door.
When their neighbour Jason Hegdes first moved in he had an amicable relationship with the pair.
It wasn’t until he decided to paint the outside of his house red that the issues began.
As Jason was up a ladder painting the façade of his terraced house Jane called up to tell him to be careful not to get any paint on her white window frames.
Her comment was met with an unexpected tirade of verbal abuse and when Jane’s husband came out to defend her Brian claims the angry neighbour said he would “smash my glasses through my face”.
This horrific incident left the couple shaken and afraid of their neighbour although through his lawyer he contradicted their version of events, claiming that Jane had said that he couldn’t paint the house.
Shortly afterwards Brian was getting out of his car to return home when he claims he saw his neighbour Jason walking down the road with a hammer in his hand.
The situation turned from bad to worse when they later found out that Jason had allegedly used the hammer to attack a worker at a local fast food shop.
Following the incident Brian was asked by police to be a witness in court and agreed
“I realised that this man who had verbally threatened us was capable of more,” said Brian.
“Knowing full well that it is the person that lives next door you sort of get the felling this could go badly wrong for me.”
Brian considered pulling his statement before the trial but decided to go ahead.
Jason claimed that the hammer was in fact a walking stick but was found guilty of assault by beating and carrying an offensive weapon and was handed a community order, curfew and a tag but no custodial sentence.
The difficult neighbour was not about to forget Brian’s actions and Brian claims that he shouted across the road at him on one occasion: “Grass, grass, I hate grasses. This isn’t over.”
The menacing statement shook the couple who decided to install CCTV in order to feel more secure in their home.
They stopped going out into their garden and would only travel past their neighbour’s home in the safety of their car.