Elderly 'neighbour from hell' launched 12-year hate campaign against couple next door - because she disliked their cat

An OAP ‘neighbour from hell’ has been handed a restraining order for launching a ten-year hate campaign against the couple next door - because she disliked their cat.

‘Horrible’ Milka Kontic lived peacefully next to John and Audrey Ward for 20 years before suddenly turning on her neighbours last year.

Between 2002 and 2014 she hurled mud at their home and tried to flood their house with a hosepipe - because the Ward’s cat had left a mess in her garden.

Serbian-born Kontic, 87, who has lived on the street near Telford, Shropshire, for 50 years, shoved the hosepipe through her neighbour’s open window and also threw a brick at Mr Ward.

When asked why she had taken against the couple, Kontic said their cat Jill went to the toilet in the garden of her home.

Bizarrely, the widow also complained about the couple feeding the birds.

Even when Jill died of old age in 2013, the abuse continued on an almost daily basis and didn't even stop when Kontic was slapped with her first restraining order.

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The couple set up a secret camera to catch Kontic’s antics and after she was captured hurling stones over their fence, they reported her to the police.

Last week Kontic admitted two counts of harassment when she was hauled to Telford Magistrate’s Court.

JPs gave her a six-month conditional discharge and slapped her with a restraining order which bans her from having any contact with the Wards.

Reading a statement from the couple, prosecutor Mike Phillips said: 'We can no longer sit in the back garden as we should be able to in our retirement because of constant fear of rubbish and missiles being thrown.

'We do not need this constant harassment and nuisance and we should not have to live with it.'

This week, retired bricklayer Mr Ward, 74, who has two children and two grandchildren, said: 'There were no problems at first, no problems at all.

'She used to lock herself out of the house and I would drive her over to her son’s house to get the spare key.

'We used to talk often. We got on fine. But then I started to notice rubbish ending up in our garden, broken glass, stones, old crockery anything.

'She didn't give us a reason and when we tried to speak to her about it she would just say 'I don't care, I don't care'.

'She has made our lives unbearable. She told the police something about our cat leaving mess all over her garden, but there are lots of cats in the area and we have put wire fences up to stop our cat getting to her garden so that’s not true.

'I even got footage of her throwing stuff over as proof.

‘She didn't like us feeding the pigeons either - I was out in the garden one day putting some bread out and she threw a brick which just whistled past my ear.

'I turned round and shouted ‘what the hell are you doing?’ but you can’t speak to her. Even her sons say that.’

Audrey, who retired from her job in a laundrette ten years ago, added: ‘It has just been a living nightmare. I wanted to move at one stage, but it’s like John says, why should we?’

Mrs Kontic was approached today but would not comment on the court proceedings.