Clifton neighbour harasser left victim too scared to go in her own garden

A 37-year-old Nottingham man’s “endless abuse” against his next-door neighbour left her too frightened to even go out in her own garden. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Peter Clark meted out vile slurs against the victim and her partner, including calling him the N-word despite him being white.

The defendant, of Clifton, accused the woman of speaking to the council against him and told her “the next charge will be murder” during months of verbal attacks. And in a victim impact statement, the female told how she “can’t live a normal life anymore” because of what she was subjected to.

Handing him a six-month jail term, suspended for two years, Judge Michael Auty KC said: “Peter Clark, I am not going to lecture you and you might disagree with what I am about to say to you, but what is the important thing is that you have stopped doing this for the past 18 months now. Stay out of trouble, keep your nose clean for the next two months and that will be the last you will hear about this.

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“But if you are foolish enough to repeat what you have done you will start with six months and any new offences will be on top of that.”

Stefan Fox, prosecuting, said the defendant and the female victim became next-door neighbours in Cliffmere Walk around September 2022 and initially there were no issues between them. But, he said, matters changed the following month.

The prosecutor said: “It was thumping the wall and endless abuse, effectively. On October 14 (2022), she approached her property and he was sitting on his doorstep and once she walked past him he said ‘keep walking you f****** s***. On October 26 he called her and her partner t**** and then called her partner [the N-word] on numerous occasions while staring directly at her property (even though) both of the victims in this case are white.

“On December 22, he shouted more abusive comments, calling her partner ‘a rapist and a sex offender’. In January 2023 there were three more occasions where he delivered vile abuse towards them and said to her ‘you think you can get the council to blackmail me, the next charge will be murder’.”

Mr Fox said Clark was interviewed by the police about the accusations and answered “no comment” to the questions he was asked. In 2021, he was sentenced after abusing a previous next-door neighbour.

The prosecutor read out part of an impact statement made by the new victim. In it she told how she fears the defendant and now never goes out into her garden.

The woman said: “I don’t think I can live a normal life anymore. It is not fair to live my life in fear.”

The defendant pleaded guilty to harassment. Will Bennett, mitigating, said: “There is one tiny ray of hope and that the defendant is very frightened of the prospect of prison, now lives 20 minutes away and there have been no further incidents (for the past 18 months).”

As well as the suspended sentence order, the judge handed the defendant a restraining order not to contact either complainant or go to their address for the next five years.