Nurse ordered to work 100 hours unpaid for harassing neighbours

Susan Sheldrick, 45, of St Hilda's Road, Harrogate, was yesterday ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work and pay 200 to a police officer she attacked.

She was convicted by the town's magistrates last month of harassing neighbours Justin and Heather Jackson and assaulting Pc Yvonne Agars with intent to resist arrest.

The court heard that the behaviour was due to a boundary dispute and also involved a planning application made by their neighbours.

Sheldrick and her husband, who have lived at their home for eight years and who now intend to sell up in the hope of running a smallholding in Lincolnshire, were said to have harassed Mr and Mrs Jackson by obsessive hedge-cutting.

In one period, Sheldrick cut a boundary hedge twice a day for a week, beginning at 6.30am and finishing at 11pm.

As a result, the height of the front hedge had been reduced from eight feet to three feet and the back one from 10 ft to four feet.

During the three years of harassment, the Sheldricks car was once vacuumed at 1am and Sheldrick sang close to the Jacksons' bedroom window at the top of her voice at 11pm.

Peter Johnson, defending, said Sheldrick was highly strung and often did things as odd hours because she worked shifts.

He said assaulting Pc Agars had been a shock reaction to police coming to her home.

She was sentenced along with her husband Nigel Sheldrick, 49, who was convicted of harassment and ordered to do 40 hours unpaid work.

The couple, who plan to appeal, will also have to pay 2,000 court costs between them.

A number of restrictions were placed on them to prevent any further harassment to the Jacksons, including only cutting the hedge once a month between 8.30am and 4pm.