A woman compared her neighbour of more than 15 years’ hair to a ‘tampon string,’ as part of a campaign of terror spanning more than a decade.
Pensioner Bernadette Gibb, 68, screamed ‘every four letter word imaginable’ at next-door neighbours Lillian Marflitt and Tony Fidoe.
At one point, the couple were so frustrated they asked previous neighbours of Gibb if they had issues – they said she was an ‘absolute terror’.
In many instances, Gibb would open the bathroom window of her seaside bungalow whenever she saw the couple outside and shout: ‘F*** off!’ before slamming it shut.
Gibb, who lives in Formby, near Merseyside, was initially issued with a restraining order in 2018 but it was extended in 2022.
Mr Fidoe said the harassment started in 2009 after Gibb moved to the neighbourhood: ‘The first day she moved in she introduced herself, and a little bit later in the day she came over and was in tears. She said where she had moved from she had awful neighbours.
‘My first words were “You are fine here. Everyone is great in this neighbourhood.” Then she just started terrorising us. We had to document everything and submit it all to the police.’
This week she appeared before magistrates in Sefton after a series of other breaches and was sentenced to 38 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months.
After the case Mr Fidoe said: ‘We have been called every single four-letter word you can think of by this lady, just trying to provoke a reaction from us. She once shouted ‘Penis-envy’. I thought ‘What does that mean?’ and I had to Google it. It was just so random.’
Mr Fidoe said he sent 138 pages of incidents to the police covering the period from 2009 to 2018.
‘They advised us to install CCTV but she was very crafty. The window at the side would open and she would shout ‘F*** off’, and no one would see. Another time, she opened the window and lobbed a toilet roll.
‘We have never reacted or tried to provoke this lady, never. We have always tried to be friendly but the abuse prior was terrible – unbelievable really.
‘We always got the sense that she does not like men,’ he said. ‘If she knew that her behaviour could impact your life, she would get a buzz from that.’
Prosecutor Paula Grogan said: ‘She referred to Ms Marflitt’s hair as looking like a tampon saying that Mr Fidoe has been using Ms Marflitt’s womb and that they should all move.
‘They felt that she was showing signs of intoxication as she was very red in the face.’
Gibb told the court she may have been shouting out and swearing, but claimed it wasn’t directed towards her neighbours.
She blamed unwanted phone calls from a man who was ‘harassing her’, claiming she yelled at him and not her neighbours.
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Gibb admitted four charges of breaching a restraining order. Her lawyer Darren Jones said: ‘The defendant lost her daughter in 2021. She was her carer for her whole life and it had a massive impact on her, hence the excessive drinking. All of these incidents are alcohol-related.’
Mr Jones added: ‘Miss Gibb is an intelligent woman who worked for banks in Jersey and across Europe. his all stems from the death of her daughter unfortunately and looking for answers at the bottom of the bottle as we all know are never there.’
Gibb was also ordered to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activity and a six-month alcohol treatment requirement and was also made to pay £487 in costs. She was issued with a further five-year restraining order.
District Judge James Hatton told her: ‘There is an ongoing history between you and this family for some reason I do not know. This has to stop. If it does not stop you are going to find yourself going into custody.’
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