A 78-YEAR-OLD grandmother who waged a "campaign of terror" on her next-door neighbours has been told she cannot speak to them for the next two years.

Jeanette Rispin, from Chester-le-Street in County Durham, used a knife, hammer, drill and chisel to push sealant out of a garden wall and stared at her neighbours through the gaps.

She pleaded not guilty to harassing the married couple who moved into the neighbouring semi-detached house two years ago.

But the pensioner, who has lived at her property for 37 years, was found guilty of criminal damage and harassing her neighbours.

She was described by her neighbours as being "nasty and spiteful".

Rispin was also accused of flooding her neighbour's garage with a hosepipe, putting dead flowers in a row between their front gardens and shouting abuse over the garden wall.

Emma Barker, prosecuting, said: "The neighbours said the defendant has made their lives 'nothing short of a misery'.

"On Saturday, April 14, the man next-door has been in the garden dismantling a workshop – a large wooden structure standing against a wall between his property and the defendant's.

"After removing the structure, the severity of the state of the brick wall was revealed and there were several cracks and holes in it. He was concerned as the wall is more than 8ft tall and could be weakened now the workshop had been removed.

"He's filled the cracks in the wall with putty, but the defendant has used a hammer or a chisel to remove the putty from the cracks."

Days later, Rispin pushed an eight-inch knife through the wall and continued to hit the bricks with a chisel for around 20 minutes.

A victim impact statement was read at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court by Ms Barker on behalf of the harassed neighbours, who said: "We are at our wits end and we’ve been living with this for over a year.

"We wonder how this will end and we hope no one will get hurt or injured. The amount of stress this woman has caused is off the scale.

"My wife has recently been diagnosed with cancer and this is the last thing that we need. I can sense my wife's stress and anxiety almost all of the time.

"We cannot relax in our own home. I’m nervous about going home when I should be feeling the exact opposite."

He added: "She seems to portray herself as an old, vulnerable lady, but she's nasty, spiteful and I don't know how this will end."

He previously said outside court: "This vendetta, this personal vendetta, against my family began when we moved in next door.

"It has been a campaign of terror, it has been hell for two years.

"It is like something you watch on television, I wouldn't wish a neighbour from hell on my worst enemy."

The court heard Rispin, who lives alone and has severe health problems, has called for police assistance herself 25 times during the year.

Her lawyer said: "She has been concerned about going out into the neighbourhood. She’s worried about what she'll be accused of.

"She's keeping herself to herself and this is being corroborated by family members. She wants to leave this behind her."

A probation report was prepared ahead of Rispin’s sentencing, with a probation officer stating: “She still denies a lot of what’s been said against her.

“She says the wall is on her side and that the putty came out on her side of the wall, so she took it off.

“As for the drilling, she said she was trying to put up a wooden planter. She feels she’s the victim.”

Rispin was handed a two-year restraining order, preventing her from having any contact with her neighbours, and was given a 12-month conditional discharge.

She must also pay a £120 fine and £620 to cover court trial costs.