Neighbours’ nightmare at the hands of bully who built travellers’ site behind homes
A NEIGHBOUR from hell carried out a year- long campaign of harassment in his village as he tried to set up a travellers’ site behind a row of houses.
John Doherty has been jailed after threatening women living in the street, pouring concrete in sewage pipes and even demolishing one neighbour’s wall.
Homes were flooded, residents’ health suffered and he regularly lit fires sending smoke into their homes.
Doherty, 35, a traveller who runs a building firm, abused neighbours in the village of Overseal, Derbyshire, built walls to cover their windows and placed tacky statues at the site’s entrance.
When staff from the local water company tried to sort out the problems he had caused, he threatened them so that they needed security when visiting the site.
Doherty has been embroiled in a long running row with South Derbyshire District Council after it turned down his plan to set up a five-pitch travellers’ site. The authority had approved plans to build four homes there, but rejected the travellers’ site scheme because councillors felt the movement of trucks in and out of the site would disrupt neighbours’ lives.
But Doherty appealed and a government planning inspector, Paul Dignan, approved his plans.
Mr Dignan said building a five-pitch site with restrictions on commercial activity would not be as noisy as the previously approved fourhome site. Doherty celebrated the decision with balloons and a sign at the entrance declaring ‘travellers welcome’.
As he built the five travellers’ homes, Doherty, who is married with four children, moved tons of hard core rubble on to the land and was issued with an enforcement notice requiring him to remove everything.
The rubble meant water could not drain away and led to neighbours’ homes being flooded.
He did not comply with the notice and on Wednesday, Southern Derbyshire magistrates’ court found Doherty, who runs a building company called Green Leaf, guilty of a campaign of harassment between April 28, 2016, and April 26, 2017. He was jailed for 38 weeks. He was also made the subject of a fiveyear criminal behaviour order preventing him from acting anti- socially, burning waste on outdoor fires, blocking access to vehicles and operating machinery on the land.
Residents, who were too scared to be identified for fear of reprisals, said he had made their lives hell. Some living in the street have even tried to sell their homes but have so far been unable to because of the problems with Doherty. One woman has suffered health problems as a result.
Another woman said: ‘Bit by bit he has tried to bully and intimidate us. He is a horrible, narcissistic man. We can’t understand how he has been allowed to get away with it for so long.’
A third resident, who also did not wish to be named, said: ‘He’s certainly caused so much unrest in the village and as I have seen the nasty side of him twice now, he seriously is a very nasty intimidating man. His prison sentence has been a huge relief to many that they can live in peace for at least a few weeks, which is very sad as they all feel when he comes out it will all start again.’
After the hearing, Sergeant Graham Summers of Derbyshire Police said: ‘Doherty carried out his harassment campaign directed at his neighbours, including verbally abusing and threatening them, filling sewage pipes with concrete and building walls to cover their windows.
‘He tried to prevent Severn Trent Water from making repairs and due to this our officers were required to escort their staff.
‘This has been a difficult investigation due to the nature of this man’s attitude and tactics. He thought that he was untouchable, but through a careful and diligent investigation by our officers the evidence was gathered and put to the court. He was very clever. He knew exactly what he was doing when trying to get away with some of his actions.’
Councillor Pat Murray, who represents the village on South Derbyshire District Council, said: ‘He was tormenting these locals and the whole street. I was involved from when he started putting concrete down and going against all the regulations which caused no end of flooding in gardens and blocking off the street doing electrical work when there was no licence.
‘It was obvious that things weren’t as they should be and the appropriate people needed to be approached. It took a long time to collate all the evidence.
‘It was winding people up and they said enough is enough and the people had spoken and the council had no alternative but to take him to court about the harassment.
‘The planning permission still stands but he still has to abide by the enforcement notice.’
‘He is a horrible, narcissistic man’