Neighbour from hell: Pensioner accused of waging second campaign of harassment

A neighbour-from-hell who forced a couple to move house has been accused of striking again.

Vicki Blair tormented her neighbours for years in a bizarre campaign of harassment by constantly filming them with a video camera, using her hosepipe to dowse their barbecue and gardening noisily in the middle of the night.

Now a court has heard that Blair – who has since re-married – has been up to her old antics in a separate location.

She has been accused of causing Amanda McGowan “fear and alarm” at her home in an unprovoked row over a communal parking space in St Leonard’s Bank, Perth.

Mrs Ward, as she is now known, has been accused of deliberately parking her own car in a way which blocks Miss McGowan’s so she cannot get out.

In an action for interdict against Ward and her husband Norman, Miss McGowan claimed that one of them had also attacked her car and damaged it within months of purchasing a neighbouring property. Her lawyer Shona McLean told Perth Sheriff Court: “An issue arose over a parking space. The Wards believed they were entitled to park in the space.

“However, the spaces are a free-for-all and she is entitled to park wherever she feels – and the same goes for the Wards.

“He has displayed aggressive and harassing behaviour by shouting at her. The police have been contacted on several occasions. The defender has blocked in my client’s car.

“It appears to be quite deliberate in order to prevent my client moving her car. Damage was caused to my client’s car and she believes that was caused by the defender.”

She told the civil interdict hearing that Miss McGowan had been forced to install CCTV cameras to protect herself against the harassment the couple were causing.

However, the Wards’ lawyer told the hearing that the couple had only purchased the property to renovate it and had no intention of living there.

She accepted incidents had been reported to police and that Mr Ward had since signed an undertaking not to repeat his behaviour. She said there had been no further reports of trouble since August.

Solicitor Caroline Mackintosh said: “They have never resided at the property. On any view, things have quietened down from the end of August.”

Neighbour from hell: Ex army officer faces £23,000 bill after tirade of abuse against neighbours

Sheriff Gillian Wade refused to grant an interim interdict and said the measures already in place should help protect Miss McGowan. She also noted the time period since the last reported incident at the Perth property.

Previously Mrs Ward, now 66, subjected neighbours Karen and Keith Matthews to harassment which ultimately led to them selling their Blairgowrie home and moving hundreds of miles away.

Mrs Ward’s eccentric behaviour was so bad that Mrs Matthews, 54, ended up in court accused of snapping and threatening to kill her. She admitted making the threat but was admonished because of the background.

In 2014, Perth Sheriff Court heard the then-Mrs Blair had subjected the Matthews to “two years of hell”.

Mrs Blair was previously convicted of breaching the peace by raising her middle finger to Mr Matthews and fined £350.

Mr Matthews said living next door to her was like “Chinese water torture”.

Last week, we told how a former army officer had been ordered to pay £23,000 in damages to her neighbour after a long-running hate campaign.

Karen Russell waged a five-year vendetta against residents who accused her of yelling racist and homophobic abuse and writing a series of poisonous notes and letters.