A ‘neighbour from hell’ granny is behind bars after breaching a restraining order by continuing her hate campaign – from 350 MILES away.
Former tearoom owner Phyllis Blakesley, 79, was given a five-year ASBO in 2008 for harassing ex-neighbours Diana and George Beckwith in Cumbria.
She was banned from going within 200 metres of their home so she moved to Bognor Regis, West Sussex.
But she continued her hate campaign from her new home by bombarding them with threatening letters, including one asking: “What f****** ASBO?”.
Worthing Magistrates Court was told the former nurse, who served in the RAF, had sent scores of letters, with 33 sent since February this year alone.
The court was told the letters accused the Beckwiths of being drug dealers, Masons and thieves.
Blakesley admitted sending the letters between August and October last year but denied she had an ASBO, claiming her signature on the document was forged.
She told magistrates: “It’s all corrupt. No document is authentic. They were all in cahoots.
“It’s a malicious prosecution.”
She claimed the Beckwiths had led a “witch hunt” to force her out of Cumbria after her court appearance there in 2008.
But Melanie Wootten, prosecuting, said there was no evidence the document was forged – an opinion shared by the magistrates.
The court was told how Blakesley, who has nine convictions for 29 offences, was given the ASBO after she breached restraining orders.
These were given for sending the Beckwiths letters, squirting them with a hose, attacking their cattle with a broom, sabotaging farm machinery and sawing part of a fence.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mrs Beckwith said she had been left “distressed and humiliated” by Blakesley’s abuse.
She said: “We have suffered harassment for 15 years. She is so abusive.
“I’ve felt let down and helpless. She is very disturbed, bitter and angry. She has a total disregard for her victims.”
The court was told mother-of-four Blakesley moved to Bognor in 2009 but continued to harass the Beckwiths via Royal Mail, leading to her arrest in October last year.
Doctors previously diagnosed Blakesley with a paranoid personality disorder, which left her with a tendency to be suspicious of other people.
She suffered paranoid and irrational delusions, leaving her with conspiracy theories about her neighbours, the local council, the justice system and Freemasons.
Grandmother-of-11 Blakesley fell out with the Beckwiths over access rights through a gate at her home in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, which she bought from the couple.
She tormented the family to the extent they were almost forced off their land – even smearing excrement on their van.
At an earlier hearing in Carlisle, Blakesley was jailed for calling the judge a “b***ard”. She was later sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.
Speaking between hearings at Worthing Magistrates Court on Thursday, Blakesley said she would go on hunger strike in prison.
She was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on April 16.
