Snob gran repeatedly burned bonfires, pushed over wheelie bins and made anonymous phone calls during 12-year campaign of harassment against neighbours
Stuck-up Kathleen Neal, 76, slapped with restraining order following years of misbehaviour in Castle Donington, Leics
A SNOBBY 76-year-old woman made her neighbours' lives a misery for 12 years - because they used to live in a COUNCIL HOUSE.
Stuck-up Kathleen Neal repeatedly broke into the back garden of retired Sue Brookes, 65, and her husband Keith, 68 and knocked over their wheelie bins.
She bombarded them with nuisance calls and sprayed weed killer on their lawn.
Neal began harassing the couple in 2002 by lighting up to four bonfires a day and wafting the smoke over their fence.
She then started clambering through wires and over a 5ft-high fence to get into the their back garden.
On one occasion she even screamed at Sue to "get back to your council house."
Grandparents Sue and Keith complained to their local council and installed CCTV cameras in their garden to gather evidence against their neighbour in Castle Donington, Leics.
Neal, who lives in a £400,000 three-bedroom detached house, continued the harassment despite warnings from police officers and North West Leicestershire District Council.
But she has now been slapped with a five-year restraining order at Derby County Court banning her from harassing her neighbours.
A judge who made the ruling on Wednesday warned Neal she faces a large fine or jail if she breaks it.
Sue and Keith said they were delighted with the and told how the harassment had "ruined" their retirement.
Gran-of-five Sue, who used to run her own care company, added: "We moved here from our own private house on the other side of the village.
"But I grew up on a council estate around the corner from where we are now so Mrs Neal would know of me.
"On one occasion she started banging on her conservatory and shouted 'get back to your council house where you belong'.
"Last year she started calling our landline from an anonymous number and staying silent. We would get a couple of calls a day sometimes and had 48 calls in total.
On numerous other occasions Neal would start bonfires close to the boundary fence of the Brookes' garden whenever they hung out their washing.
Sue added: "As soon as we went outside she would light a bonfire with an accelerant.
"I saw her fanning the smoke over the fence and if we put washing out she would light another fire.
"One time before we went on holiday we had turf laid and while we were away our son called and said it had been pulled all the way back.
"She had to clamber over some wires to get into our garden, it was about 5ft tall.
"We had to put CCTV cameras up to protect ourselves because she was coming into our garden and throwing our wheelie bins over and picking tubs up and throwing them.
"The she started the weed killing which has been going on for a few years.
"Our plants had brown marks and started to die and we realised they had been sprayed. She would even spray it through the gaps in the fence.
"It felt like a persecution really, we felt trapped inside our own house. It made us feel uncomfortable and very nervous.
Sue and retired engineer Keith, who have two children and five grandchildren, moved into their detached five-bedroom home, which was built in 1938, next door to Neal in 2002.
The couple initially got on with the pensioner but things changed in 2004 when she objected to them putting decking in their garden and making a garage conversion.
Neal, who lives with her husband Peter, 79, and son James, 47, refused to comment.
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