Neighbour ‘terrorised’ mother and daughter with abuse campaign in south London

A neighbour “terrorised” a mother and daughter by hurling insults at them and blasting loud music in a campaign of abuse they feared would never end, a court was told.

Samantha Springer, 40, tormented Consuelo Levine, 57, and her student daughter Ines Hamilton, 21, by threatening to attack them, throwing pieces of carpet from her window and hurling homophobic abuse.

Despite being banned under a restraining order from contacting either woman, Springer continued to insult and harass them in a string of incidents in the summer and autumn of last year, including one when she yelled “lesbian” at them while they were in their garden.

In one incident last October, Springer threatened to throw a stone at Ms Levine then put a bucket of faeces and urine in the communal area of the block of flats, in Harleyford Road, Vauxhall.

At Inner London crown court yesterday Judge Silas Reid spared Springer, who is mentally ill, a prison sentence but warned she would be locked up if she continued to break the law.

Sentencing her to a community order with court-ordered mental health treatment, the judge said: “You made your neighbours’ lives a misery. The homophobic comments caused them considerable upset, not least because they were wondering when it would ever end.”

After the hearing, Ms Hamilton said: “It’s very hard to explain how much and how constant the abuse was. I would tell people she was literally terrorising us. She enjoyed doing it, she loved doing these things to us.”

Mother and daughter are both receiving medical help as a result of the abuse, Ms Hamilton said, adding: “We couldn’t just leave. We live here, we bought this place.” Springer was issued with a restraining order in March 2016, but started flouting the ban on August 3 last year. She has now moved out of the block.

Springer pleaded guilty to five charges of breaching a restraining order. She received an 18-month community order, including nine months of supervised mental health treatment and a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement.