Shropshire Star

Next door neighbour's reign of terror in Ludlow is relived on TV

Pauline Bruce and her late husband Tony hoped for a nice quiet retirement when they moved to Ludlow.

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Instead Pauline has been forced to endure seven years of hell at the hands of a "nasty" neighbour who made her life a misery with silent phone calls, taunts about her terminally-ill husband and attacks on her son.

Next-door-neighbour Yvonne Ireland Evans was initially very friendly to the couple when they moved in following Mr Bruce's retirement in 2002.

But when Mrs Bruce started talking to another neighbour, things quickly turned sour.

Appearing on Channel 5's The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door this week, Pauline said her neighbour did not even show compassion when Mr Bruce was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2011.

Terminally ill Tony Bruce was abused

Mrs Bruce said her neighbour continued to taunt her and her son from a previous marriage, John, when they were grieving his death a year later.

"Our relationship started off very well," Mrs Bruce said. "She was a very nice person, if she could help you in any way she would. She used to come in and have a cup of tea, we became friends."

But it all changed when Pauline started spending more time with another neighbour as they were working on a gardening project together.

"She started ignoring me and when I asked why, I was told it because I 'had a new best friend' and she didn't want to know us any more."

But then, Mrs Bruce said, her neighbour's behaviour started to take a more sinister turn. She began making silent phone calls to the couple day and night.

They discovered Yvonne was the culprit after the police traced the calls and she was given a fixed penalty notice and fine. But Pauline said it only led to the harassment becoming worse.

"She'd walk past the house and stick her fingers up at us. She started shouting abuse through the windows – it went on like this for four years.

"It got to the stage where I'd wake up and think 'I hope nothing happens today', I'd always have a sick feeling in my stomach."

In March 2011 Mr Bruce was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Mrs Bruce said: "When Yvonne heard the news, instead of expressing sympathy, she mocked Tony. She would be telling him: 'You've got cancer, you are going to die.' She also started making her crank phone calls again.

"Tony was terminally ill so we had precious time left and to have that spoiled by someone making unnecessary phone calls made things worse."

The couple again got the police involved, and Yvonne pleaded guilty to harassment in court and was fined £100. She also signed a community resolution saying she would stay away from the family.

But it still didn't lead to the end of the troubles.

Following Tony's death, John moved in with his mother to support her.

"As soon as I walked in the back gate she would be waiting for me," he said.

One day, John claimed, the abuse became physical when Yvonne threatened him with a pair of secateurs after her dog leapt over the garden fence to attack his dog, Scrappy.

He said: "I heard a crash bang from the garden and Scrappy was in the jaws of a pretty big dog.

"I rescued Scrappy and kept Yvonne's dog in the house, causing Yvonne to then climb over the fence, holding secateurs, demanding her pet back.

"She started hitting me screaming 'Give me my dog back'. The secateurs missed my throat by an inch."

Mrs Bruce witnessed the encounter and tried to intervene to stop Yvonne attacking her son.

"I was frightened for our lives," she said. "We told her to get back into her own garden and then we'd give her her dog. We called the police, I dread to think what she could have done."

Yvonne told the police she had been acting in self defence so Pauline and John decided not to press charges. Instead, they collected all the evidence they had of Yvonne's abusive behaviour and submitted it to the owner of the community park.

This led to Yvonne being served an eviction notice and she was told to leave within eight weeks. She has since left the site.

"I'm not sorry she's gone – I have a much more peaceful life now and can grieve for Tony," Mrs Bruce said. "I'm so sorry he wasn't here to see the day she went."

* The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door is on Channel 5 on Wednesdays at 8pm.

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