AN elderly woman has been jailed after repeatedly moving her neighbour’s bins and asking her ‘isn’t it time you dropped dead?’.

Linda Connel-Williams, of St Peter’s Way in Orford, was previously convicted of a charge harassment without violence at Warrington Magistrates’ Court after a trial.

She was found guilty by magistrates and recently appeared back in court, where she was sentenced to immediate imprisonment.

During her trial, prosecutor Katie Johnson told the court that the harassment began in July 2023, when the 72-year-old started moving her neighbour’s bins.

A video of Connel-Williams moving the bin, and a picture of the bin then on a patch of grass, was shown to the court.

While giving evidence, the victim told the court that she came home from work to find her bins had been moved, which she found ‘quite upsetting’ as she had experienced one going missing before.

Further footage from August 15 showed that while the victim was retrieving items from her car, Connel-Williams can be heard from her upstairs window.

“Can you bang that gate harder?” she can be heard to shout in the footage.

The gate, which has access into the communal garden the neighbours share, is difficult to close depending on the weather, the court heard.

Two days later, CCTV footage showed Connel-Williams moving a blue bin from the spot the victim had left it in and taking it down the road away from the property.

“I put it where I could see it because sometimes it does go missing,” the victim said.

“[It was] quite annoying because it’s not for anybody to be moving it. It shouldn’t be moved to the middle of the street.”

On September 3 Connel-Williams was caught once again by the same CCTV camera shouting to the victim from her window.

The neighbours live in the same building, with Connel-Williams living above the victim, who in the footage was seen outside in the communal garden.

The victim told the court that she glanced up to Connel-Williams’ window because she’d heard a noise and wondered what it was, but was accosted for doing so.

“Don’t be looking up here,” Connel-Williams could be heard to say.

Ms Johnson asked the victim while she was giving evidence how this interaction had made her feel, to which she replied ‘intimidated’.

“I feel like I can’t go into my back garden,” she said.

Connel-Williams moved the victim’s bin once again on September 21, leaving the victim feeling ‘stressed and upset’.

Footage from the victim’s front door showed Connel-Williams approaching it on October 1, yelling at it ‘isn’t it time you dropped dead’.

The defendant then proceeded to post a note through the victim’s letterbox six days later, which read ‘keep your rusty rubbish off our pebbles’, in reference to two bikes that were kept in the communal garden on pebbles that the defendant stated she bought.

Due to the ongoing dispute between the neighbours, who have lived in the same building for 12 years, mediation was held two years ago to help stop any further incidents.

The victim also told the court that she has been taking anti-depressants as a result of the conflict with Connel-Williams.

While giving evidence, Connel-Williams admitted several of the incidents, including telling the ‘drop dead’ comment.

“I have been there for 34 and a half years, and I have not had one decent neighbour in all the time,” said Connel-Williams.

“It’s time my husband and I had some peace.”

When questioned whether asking the victim if it was time to ‘drop dead’ would be distressing, she stated that it’s ‘just a figure of speech’ and that she ‘didn’t really mean it in that way.’

“It wouldn’t make me feel upset if someone said that to me,” said Connel-Williams.

“I’m a very strong person.”

Magistrates sentenced her to 12 weeks immediate imprisonment after she failed to comply with the Probation Service in the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Such a report gives magistrates options instead of sending someone to prison.

Magistrates highlighted the seriousness of the offence, which they described as being ‘persistent and prolonged harassment’ having an impact on the victim, before passing sentence.

A restraining order has also been put in place for two years, during which time Connel-Williams cannot contact the victim or touch her property, including her bins.