Neighbours over ‘ untidy’ garden
A CANTANKEROUS pensioner has avoided jail despite threatening to burn down his neighbours’ house in a 44- year feud over the state of their garden.
John Bushell, 89, keeps the exterior of his £ 200,000 detached home, which he bought in 1961, in immaculate condition with trimmed hedges, polished statues and a bowling- green lawn.
He fell out with neighbours Marjorie and Ken Mills, both 67, after they arrived in 1970 claiming their garden was driving down his house’s value.
The bust- up escalated in the 1990s leaving retired bookmaker Bushell with a string of convictions for harassment.
Bushell, who lives with wife Sonia, in Hebburn, South Tyneside, was convicted on Monday for his 10th breach of a restraining order.
South Tyneside magistrates heard Mr Mills was in his garden with a neighbour when Bushell shouted: “I’m going to get shot of yous, burn your house down before I die.”
Charlton Carr, defending, claimed it was an “empty threat”.
Bushell was already on a final warning after branding the Mills’s home a “midden” – a term meaning a “manure pile”. But he was given an eight- week suspended sentence with £ 250 costs and an £ 80 victim surcharge.
District Judge Helen Cousins told him “to sell your house and spend the rest of your life in peace”.
But last night Bushell said: “Who is going to buy it when you see the state of the gardens around here?”
During his years of abuse, Bushell painted a whitewashed wall black and tipped rubbish into other gardens.
He received his first harassment conviction in 1998 and was jailed for three months in 2001.
The Mills tried to sell up but buyers pulled out after hearing about Bushell. Mrs Mills said: “No one wants to live next to a man like him.”