Neighbour from hell
‘Obsessive’ OAP given suspended jail sentence for CCTV harassment
A MAN who installed 16 CCTV cameras which looked down on his neighbours that fed into his TV has been labelled a ‘neighbour from hell’ by a judge.
Thomas Kelly of Weir View, Lucan, in west Dublin, had the live feed from his cameras fed into a large TV in his sitting room.
The 65-year-old had previously claimed in court he was using the camera for security, to monitor property boundaries, and to catch one of his neighbours, Paul Lynam, performing sex acts on himself in the man’s back garden.
Gardaí had called after the neighbour discovered two separate cameras at the back of his home in early 2016.
Kelly had pleaded not guilty to all four harassment charges, but was found guilty of two counts of harassing Mr Lynam on dates between July 1 and July 15, 2016.
He was also been found guilty of harassing another neighbour, John Mooney at another address at Weir View on a date between February 1, 2016 and February 12, 2016 and to harassing William Stapleton at another address at Weir View on a date between February 1 and February 12, 2016.
Blanchardstown District Court had heard that on February 11, 2016, gardaí had searched three premises at Weir View owned by Kelly. In Kelly’s house there were two widescreen TVs in his living room. One of the TVs was set to a normal channel and the other to a number of live CCTV feeds.
The gardaí later found a camera on the steep slope behind the house pointed at the three injured parties’ homes.
On July 15, 2016, gardaí again went to Kelly’s house where they saw the two TVs set up in the same way. Another camera was found in the escarpment.
Mr Lynam had previously told the court that he had lived in Weir View for 15 years and that he ‘had a funny feeling that he was being watched’.
Mr Mooney had told the court: ‘Living there is a nightmare at the moment. I can’t articulate how I feel. I feel I’m being watched. The back of my house is in darkness. I can’t allow my young daughter to open the blinds at the back of the house in case we are being filmed.’
Another neighbour Mr Stapleton had told the court that he had lived in Weir View all his life. He said he was shocked when he discovered he and his family were being watched on cameras.
Judge McHugh described Kelly’s behaviour as ‘obsessive’ and ‘bordering on paranoia’ and convicted him of four charges of harassment.
At yesterday morning’s sentencing hearing, Kelly’s solicitor Valerie Buckley said her client was a pensioner who had never come to the attention of the gardaí before or since.
She said the charges arose from a land dispute that was currently before the civil courts.
Kelly was someone who was very focused in relation to that dispute and ‘perhaps a little bit too focused in relation to the security aspect’, she added.
Judge David McHugh was handed victim-impact statements which he read to himself, but they were not read aloud to the court. Ms Buckley said the media attention on Kelly following the hearing of the case was ‘very intense’ and ‘distressing for him and his family’.
She asked the judge to deal with the case by way of an order for Kelly to stay away from the victims. She said Kelly had no reason to be in contact with his victims.
Judge McHugh told the court: ‘I consider this gentleman to be what is commonly known as the neighbour from hell.’
He said the victim-impact statements showed the effect on the injured parties was over a prolonged period.
Judge McHugh said there was no question of leaving Kelly without a conviction and instead the decision was ‘whether he serves’.
He said it was a ‘close call’ but he sentenced Kelly to four months in jail, suspended for two years, on condition that the cameras be removed and that the gardaí are allowed to inspect the area.
Judge McHugh also made an order for Kelly to stay away from the victims indefinitely.
16 cameras used to film homes