Neighbour’s hate campaign …waged with a fat figurine
A PenSIOneR used a pottery figurine of a reclining fat lady as part of an 18-month hate campaign against neighbours, a court heard.
Jennifer Anderson said she believes the three-inch ornament was put on view by Barry Carr, 66, because it looks like her.
Carr moved the figurine around so she could see it every time she went to or from her home, it was claimed.
Retired fish and chip shop owner Carr also harassed Miss Anderson and her partner David Smith – a former Royal bodyguard – by playing loud music from his conservatory.
His favourites included Jealousy and Strange lady About Town by 1950s’ singer Frankie laine. Carr also put up model skulls and 19 security cameras – some equipped with night vision – outside his home in Fleetwood, lancashire. Yesterday, he received a suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of harassment at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court. Prosecuting, Sarah Perkins said Carr’s behaviour became ‘worrying, strange and obsessive’ and had ‘caused alarm and distress’.
The court heard Carr used his CCTV cameras every day to film Miss Anderson, 61, and Mr Smith, 59, who once worked for the Army’s Royal Protection Squad.
The pensioner even erected a 20ft flag pole on which he placed a large picture of Mr Smith, who now works in private security.
He littered his garden with quirky ornaments such as chattering false teeth. The court heard Carr believed his neighbours envied his wealth. But Miss Anderson said: ‘This man has tormented me… he knows that figurine looks like me.’
Carr’s campaign extended to putting a bow tie on a skull fastened to a door which could be seen by the couple. Mr Smith believed it was mimicking how he would often wear a dinner suit and bow tie when he worked at night. Magistrates heard the couple raised their fence but Carr responded by moving the skulls and a picture of Mr Smith so they were still visible.
He refused a request by police to remove the picture from his flagpole. Magistrate David Hearton said: ‘ Some of these issues may seem trivial individually but together they become much more serious – time after time after time causing stress and distress.’
Carr was sentenced to a tenweek jail term suspended for a year, and must pay his victims £200 compensation each, plus £900 court costs. He must not communicate with them, display photos of them or have any cameras pointing at the front of their home. The figurine must also be kept out of Miss Anderson’s vision.
Miss Anderson told the hearing: ‘We moved in five years ago. The first six months were OK. Then we realised he was filming us day in, day out, 365 days a year.
‘The next thing a figurine of a fat lady in a blue stripey dress like one I wear has been put on his window sill looking at me all the time.’
Mr Smith admitted losing his temper with Carr and shoving him. He said: ‘ He kept goading me, saying my partner was fat and ugly.’ He also claimed Carr told him they were ‘bringing the neighbourhood down’ because they rented their property.
Carr claimed he had the cameras ‘for my own protection’. He said: ‘I could not believe it when two police officers said they were investigating the positioning of a figurine.’ Steven Townley, defending, added: ‘ My client has been picked on because lives alone and has never been married.’ Carr said he intended to appeal.
‘Causing distress time after time’