Landlady awarded £23,000 after hate campaign by former army officer

Former tenants described woman as ‘the neighbour from hell’

A former army captain who waged a five-year hate campaign against her neighbours has been ordered to pay more than £23,000 in damages.

Karen Russell, who lives in St Monans, Fife, threatened her neighbours, shouted racist and homophobic abuse, filmed tenants and accused the flat owner of being unsuitable to work with children.

Russell, who has been described as the “neighbour from hell” by former residents, blocked communal spaces, turned off the water supply, covered lights with bin bags, and slammed doors so loudly it caused the building to shudder between 2012 and 2017.

Russell has been ordered to pay landlady Pip Watt £23,479.60 for loss of rental earnings and compensation for the harassment that she suffered.

Pip, an education professional from Edinburgh, described the past five years as “a complete nightmare”.

She said: “I just felt so sick. I was worried all the time. I was wondering what was going to happen next.

“I was constantly living on the edge, I wasn’t sleeping. It just took over everything. I had to take time off work.”

Pip bought the flat in 2012 and discovered the water supply was controlled through Russell’s downstairs flat but when she attempted to have it turned on, Russell said she was harassing her.

A separate supply was plumbed in and the first tenant moved in at the end of September 2013 but Russell’s tirade of abuse continued.

Pip was sent harassing messages, with Russell even contacting her employer accusing her of being a “vile human being” as well as “a bully and not someone who I would place within 100 miles of a child”.

The first tenant, who worked as a university lecturer, only lasted three months before she asked to move out, saying the flat was “unfit for human habitation” due to Russell’s abuse.

Russell had left her threatening notes, and in one message called her a thief.

A second set of tenants stayed at the flat for six months but had their mail go missing, they were repeatedly locked out of the flat and the common close was pitch black due to light bulbs being smashed or removed, or pieces of cardboard being stuck in front of the lights.

Matthis Sigalois, 27, moved in to the property with a friend in 2014. Russell, a former equality and diversity adviser in the army, called Matthis and his friend “Polish scumbags” and used homophobic slurs towards them.

Sheriff Lorna Drummond ruled at Dundee Sheriff Court last week Russell’s behaviour was “more than could be reasonably tolerated”.

Russell said she plans to appeal the sheriff’s decision.