'Wicked' pensioner escapes prison sentence (From Free Press Series)

'Wicked' pensioner escapes prison sentence

AN Abergavenny pensioner has escaped a prison sentence for breaching a restraining order not to harass her neighbour.

Instead Dorothy Evans, aged 78, of Park Crescent was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs after being found guilty of breaching a restraining order imposed by Cwmbran magistrates in 1999.

She has a year to pay the full amount or she faces 45 days in custody.

The restraining order was to prevent her being abusive towards her neighbours Margaret Jones, Peter Kenyon, Julian Edwards and their families.

She was given a nine-month suspended prison sentence in 2001 at Cardiff Crown Court after the jury found her guilty of seven charges of breaching the order. Then the judge described her as "the original neighbour from hell".

During a trial at Cardiff Crown Court in May Evans was found guilty of one charge, not guilty of three other breaches and, on the direction of Judge David Morris, acquitted of two similar charges.

She was found guilty of parking her car so it blocked in a van belonging to a plumber who was carrying out work at Mrs Andrea Edwards' home.

At Newport Crown Court last Friday, Judge David Morris told her: "You are an evil-minded old woman who takes wicked and perverse delight in causing inconvenience and, if at all possible, humiliation and distress to your immediate neighbours.

"Not without considerable hesitation I have come to the view that it is not so serious as to invariably call for a prison sentence." He said he took into account her age and poor physical health when imposing the sentence.

The judge said she parked the car in front of the plumber's van "with the express intent to cause inconvenience to Mrs Edwards."

Judge Morris said the latest breach was committed in February 2003, during the period of the two-year suspension of the prison sentence imposed in March 2001, but he gave no separate penalty for that.

Speaking outside court, her solicitor Terry Vaux said: "Like myself, she is immensely relieved as she has suffered a lot during this period. Anyone who thought she has got away with it must be a sadist."

He said his client would be challenging the conviction for breaching the order.