British 'neighbour from hell' has sentence cut

LONDON: An 81-year-old woman who made her neighbours' lives a misery by verbally abusing them had her jail sentence cut from six to four months by a British court on Wednesday.   

Dorothy Evans sat in a wheelchair dressed in a bright pink summer suit and white sun hat, listening through a hearing device as judges at the Court of Appeal in London decided to reduce her punishment.   

Her February trial in Cardiff, Wales heard that she breached an anti-social behaviour order by calling her neighbour, Angela Casa, a prostitute, telling Casa's daughter she was a witch and threatening to cast a spell on the family.   

The grievance harboured by Evans, of Abergavenny, south Wales, stemmed from a flooding problem at her home, which prevented her selling it and which she blamed on her neighbours, both past and present.   

Describing hers as a "sad case," judge Nicholas Underhill said it was rare for courts to jail someone as old as she was, adding the decision was only taken "as a last resort and with great reluctance".   

But he added: "Old age is not a licence to disregard the law or the requirements of decent behaviour towards others in the community."   

Evans's lawyer, David Webster, said that she was "desperately frightened by the circumstances in which she finds herself" and had been left bleeding after an attack by a fellow prisoner Tuesday.   

She was originally jailed last month after being convicted of one count of harassment and six breaches of her anti-social behaviour order.