Magistrate installs ‘anti-child’ alarm to tackle neighbours

A RETIRED magistrate has installed a “mosquito alarm” outside her Devon home to keep a neighbour’s children away. Lesley Cooper, a former teacher, said she felt forced to purchase the £600 alarm because of the behaviour of the children next door.

The alarms emit a high-pitched sound that is audible only to children and teenagers. Mrs Cooper said she had only turned the alarm on four times when the children had been hurling objects at her £400,000 property in the seaside village of Babbacombe.

She insisted that it had been authorised for use by Torbay council and the police because of the “persistent nuisance” that was the family living behind her. “They have continually vandalised, harassed and made a complete nuisance of themselves. The authorities are still dealing with it,” she told the local newspaper.

But Thomas Weldon, the single father of the six children, alleged that during the summer months the alarm had been turned on at least three times a week. He said: “This alarm has affected the kids really badly – they’re scared to go outside at all. It makes them scream in pain, I even had to take my daughter to hospital because her ears didn’t stop ringing.”