The war of the roses
Secateurs at dawn as grandfather, 82, is jailed for harassing his own son who dared to open a rival nursery...right next door!
WHEN an ambitious son wanted to branch out on his own in the gardening business, he wasn’t expecting it to be a bed of roses.
But he never thought he would end up with a thorn in his side – in the shape of his elderly father, who still runs his own nursery next door.
Eight years on, the family feud is flourishing, rooted in anger and fed on bitterness.
So much so that 82-year-old Raymond Hill has just been jailed after he shoved his son and business rival Paul, 49, in yet another argument.
The outburst breached an earlier restraining order for harassing his son. A court heard Hill became ‘ bitter’ after his son set up Brookfield Nurseries in 2010, right next to his own High Bank Nurseries in the Worcestershire village of Belbroughton.
Hill, who is divorced from Paul’s mother, and lives in a £400,000 four-bedroom detached house, was found guilty of assault and breaching the restraining order – which includes a ban on him even looking over the fence that divides the two nurseries.
He was jailed for two months at Worcester Crown Court and ordered to pay £250 costs.
Yesterday Paul Hill, who is married and has a six-year-old son, said: ‘Ultimately a fatherand-son relationship has broken down. We worked together and unfortunately he has, over the years, become very bitter when I said I wanted to set up on my own.
‘Rather than him go to prison, I wish he would change and let us do what we have to do. We just want to wake up, deal with life, and be allowed to work without a war going on next door. He’s of sound mind and he is just a bit of a bully. As a human being you can only take so much.’
Judge Robert Juckes QC had told the court that Hill had already been jailed once ‘in this sorry saga’. He told him: ‘I’m really getting to my wits’ end as to what to do with you. I thought the only sensible thing was to give you one last chance. I can’t possibly deal with this matter without imposing a custodial sentence.
‘If you go on committing these offences, the sentences will simply get longer and longer.’
The court heard Hill had repeatedly breached a restraining order which was first imposed in October 2010.
It prevents him from contacting his son and daughter- in- law, Joanne, and from looking over the fence into their property. It also bans him from making derogatory statements. Hill, who denied the latest charges, breached the restraining order in 2011 and again in 2012, resulting in a 28-day jail term. He broke it again in 2013. He now has five convictions for 14 offences. In March last year, CCTV caught him staring at his son over their boundary fence. Then on May 5 he obstructed a delivery of flowers to his son’s nursery by standing on the pavement in the way of a trolley. Amiee Parkes, prosecuting, told the court that Hill had then pushed his son in the chest and had a ‘verbal altercation’. Digging in: Paul Hill, who runs Brookfield Nurseries, above, has seen his father jailed Richard Hull, defending, without the added stress of the said the grandfather had initially feud. He said he had to take medication come outside to remonstrate with himself because of the anxiety. the lorry driver, who was parked in He said his mother, Rita, now front of his house. lives with him and his family.
In a victim impact statement, ‘She apologises to me on a regular Paul’s wife Joanne, 43, said her basis for the way he is,’ he said. father-in-law’s presence intimidated ‘I say, “It’s not your fault, he’s his her and she had suffered own person, he chooses to be this from stress. Miss Parkes added: way”.’ ‘She says she doesn’t think the Yesterday, he added: ‘If he came defendant is stable and doesn’t round and said, “I’ve changed, I’m know what he’s capable of.’ sorry for what happened”, I don’t
Paul said his little boy was seriously hold grudges. But I don’t see him ill and the family could do ever changing.’