An 81-year-old pensioner used her parrot as a ‘weapon’ to ‘torture’ her neighbours by making it sing loud opera in a long-running campaign of harassment.
Catherine Searle, 81, began her reign of terror after a parking row with neighbours Paul and Lydia Appleton outside their home in Sevenoaks, Kent.
For three years, the pensioner would throw dog poo into the couple’s garden, scratch their car and play music to encourage her parrot to sing loudly.
Her victims described the bird’s operatic repertoire as ‘Chinese torture.’
The widow was caught on CCTV 38 times as she smeared grease over the bonnets of the Appletons’ van and car in 2018.
The pensioner would also play the popular Disney film Toy Story on a loop at top volume to disturb the Appleton’s peace and quiet.
Catherine Searle, 81, was made subject to a restraining orders, as well as being sentenced to 70 days in prison, suspended for 12 months
And on one occasion scratched the bonnet of a Toyota with a ring she was wearing.
In a sinister turn, the pensioner also placed sharp tacks underneath the wheels of Mr Appleton’s van.
The pensioner has now been handed a restraining order and suspended prison sentence.
Just days after the court hearing however, Searle was airlifted to Kings College Hospital in London after falling down the stairs.
She suffered a fractured neck, broken ribs, a laceration to the back of her head and a broken finger at her home in the village of Seal, near Sevenoaks.
In a victim impact statement, Mrs Appleton said: ‘I feel nervous for my husband when he’s on the road, I’m in fear of what might happen, he could be hurt or cause a terrible accident.
‘He has to go through a daily routine of checking the wheels to make sure there are no tacks and nothing has been tampered with.’
The counsellor said she has suffered night terrors as a result of her concerns.
Searle, of Seal, Kent, says the dispute started over parking in the road.
Probation officer Lauren Packham, who interviewed the pensioner, said: ‘I’ve spoken to Mrs Searle and it’s clear she doesn’t fully accept culpability.
‘She believes she is as much a victim in this neighbourly dispute.
‘She says the grease on the vehicle was the result of her falling, but she only made reference to one occasion, not multiple.’
The home of Catherine Searle, 81, (left) who terrorised her neighbours Paul and Lydia Appleton (right)
Maidstone Magistrates Court also heard the nightmare neighbour was intentionally causing her parrot to sing loudly if the Appletons were in the garden.
James Nichols, prosecuting, said: ‘She would deliberately try and harass them.
‘On one occasion she started playing loud opera music, which caused the bird to sing louder.’
Searle, who has lived in her house since 1977, was given a community order in 2017 for throwing dog poo into the Appleton’s garden.
The widowed pensioner pleaded guilty to criminal damage and harassment halfway through a trial in December.
She was made subject to a restraining order, as well as being sentenced to 70 days in prison, suspended for 12 months.
Francis Conteh, defending, warned the restraining order was a ‘recipe for disaster’.
He said: ‘If my client is coming out of her drive and Mr Appleton has just got out of his van, is this going to be listed as contact?
‘I say it’s a recipe for disaster, I would advise that in order to avoid potential breaches of a restraining order he parks elsewhere.’
Chair of the bench Tina Richardson said: ‘This is not for the court to determine.’
Searle, who lives off a £114 weekly pension, has been ordered to pay £779.77 in costs and fines.
After sentencing, Mrs Appleton spoke of the couple’s struggle to be taken seriously, saying the harassment actually began when she asked Searle to keep the noise down soon after moving in back in 2004.
Mrs Appleton said: ‘If you didn’t know this lady’s age, you’d think this harassment would have to stop.
‘Then we tell people she’s 81 and they laugh thinking it’s a joke.
‘People think she’s a little old lady, she can’t do or is not capable of these things and we’re not treated seriously.
‘She’s continuously finding ways to overstimulate her parrot for days on end by playing the television loudly and is using it as a weapon.
‘This constant noise from her parrot is akin to Chinese torture as there is no escaping the very loud piercing noises it makes in a continuous repertoire over and over.
‘Searle goes to another room and plays loud music or puts on her TV to keep the bird stimulated all day.
‘She even leaves her house, going out, leaving the back door and windows open so the bird noise can be heard wherever we are in our house.
‘In addition to this, she waits for us to go into the back garden when we wish to relax and then will put on loud music or the TV to get the bird to ‘perform’ again and thereby stopping us from enjoying the peace and quiet of the garden’
‘We have neighbours who shun us because of this.
‘For a number of years my husband and I have been subject to what we can only describe as a hate campaign and hostility from several of the neighbours.
‘They have never come to us and asked our version of events.
‘Rather, they chose to believe what was being said about us in a malicious and untruthful way.’
Maidstone Magistrates Court also heard the nightmare neighbour was intentionally causing her parrot to sing loudly if the Appletons were in the garden (stock image)
Mr Appleton, who says he hasn’t spoken to his neighbour since 2017, added: ‘I think the sentence is a good outcome, she’s been given a warning – offend again and you go to prison.’
Searle’s son Darren spoke out today as his mother lay in hospital after falling down the stairs in the days after the court hearing claiming his mother has ‘been through hell’.
He said: ‘At the court case, my mum was absolutely terrified and she couldn’t go through with it so she pleaded guilty. She had enough.
‘My mum is a good character and has lived there for 46 years with no hassle at all.
‘She fell down the stairs because she’s unstable on her feet and it’s been taking it out of her for months now. Mum’s in bed and hasn’t moved.
‘They tried to get her up yesterday with no success. The longer she lies down in bed the worse it’s going to be.
‘Hopefully she recovers.
‘It’s soul-destroying knowing that she’s not strong enough to defend herself in court because if she was, I think she would have been found innocent.
‘It’s absolutely ridiculous that it’s even come to this. All she was doing was touching the vehicle while stepping off the kerb as a support because she’s a bit unsteady on her feet.
‘I don’t understand how a parrot can be used as a weapon. It makes a noise and they can hear it in the summer when the window is open and they’re in the garden. She’s had a parrot for 40 odd years.
‘The first one – which was an absolute nightmare – died and she’s has this one for 10 to 15 years. It makes a noise of a telephone occasionally but it’s not that loud, it doesn’t squawk.
‘She’s been through hell.’
But also speaking today, Mr Appleton defended his decision to go to court.
He said: ‘On one occasion we had Toy Story being played in her kitchen on a continuous loop. It was being played really really loud.
‘She was over in her other neighbours garden have a drink and laughing.
‘It was just noise. I’m guessing it was about seven hours of continuous Toy Story.’
The former police officer explained how taking the matter to court was a last resort.
He said: ‘They have said in court that this all stated since I got here which is absolute nonsense, it might have gotten worse but not as a result of me coming here.
‘I am a former Detective Inspector with 30 year of service. My last job was protecting victims of domestic violence, hate crime, and child abuse. Its absolutely not in my DNA to be someone who causes problems for someone else.
‘My whole approach to this lady has always been ‘can we sort this out? Can we end this animosity?”
Searle, who lives off a £114 weekly pension, has been ordered to pay £779.77 in costs and fines. She was sentenced at Maidstone Magistrates Court yesterday (pictured)
The couple say relationships with other neighbours have deteriorated because people on the outside can’t believe an old woman could be the problem.
Mr Appleton added: ‘The problem we have got, because she’s an old lady people want to believe the lies they are told.
‘I try to be nice, but she doesn’t deserve any kind of respect,’ he said. ‘Our ultimate aim is just to enjoy some nice peace and quiet – that’s absolutely it and we just cannot have it.
‘We went to the police because we were at our wits end. The police asked us to prosecute and we said ‘we don’t want to be the bad guys here. Give her a caution, give her a telling off and hopefully that will stop things.’ But it didn’t.
‘This has come to court because we had nowhere else to go.’
Mrs Appleton, who used to work as a counsellor, said the ongoing harassment has damaged her mental state and made her paranoid.
She said: ‘I’m on my nerves all the time now because we have had out vehicles tampered with: things like tyres let down, glass put under the wheel, tacks put under the wheel, wheel-nuts loosened, so looking on CCTV when we saw a pattern of behaviour.
‘I’m now living on my nerves – I’m hyper vigilant. I’m thinking every time I hear a noise now I’m looking out the window like ‘what was that?’
‘My mental health as gone through the roof, I’m stressed – seriously. I’ve had it ever since I’ve moved in on my own as a single lady. She seems to have taken an instant dislike. I shouldn’t have to live like this.’
Mr Appleton added: ‘How can we move, we’ve got to declare it. We have to disclose it to anybody who’s interested in the house.
‘Why should we move? Because we’re the victims of crime? That’s proven. We can handle the animosity.’