Woman jailed for terrorising neighbours with Ed Sheeran song on repeat

Does anyone actually like Ed Sheeran‘s songs or are we simply employing them as torture devices?

The question has been raised after a Midlands woman was jailed for terrorising her neighbours with a solid half an hour of Sheeran’s megahit ‘Shape of You’ played on repeat, at top volume.

This constituted a “wholly unacceptable level of disturbance”, according to a judge and all other conscious human beings, but may also explain why Ed Sheeran has taken over the charts so comprehensively.

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We all expect a bit of push and pull from our neighbours but over the past months, Sonia Bryce of Willenhall seems to have taken things to the next level.

Neighbour Clare Tidmarsh kept a diary of disturbances emanating from Bryce’s home.

These included “loud noise involving music, shouting, swearing and banging – time and time again” according to Judge Philip Gregory.

Bryce’s landlords, Walsall Housing Group, had also previously been granted a court order barring her from creating a nuisance or annoyance, a court order she violated repeatedly before being handed a six-week sentence in December.

Tidmarsh described the Sheeran incident as the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.

Although Bryce denied playing the music, insisting that “she doesn’t even like” Sheeran’s songs, she was given a further eight-week jail sentence for the disturbance.

“You must learn that you should behave as a reasonable and responsible adult and not make life for your neighbours the misery that you have,” the judge told Bryce, which is as damning a review of Sheeran’s work as any you’ll read in the music press.

It’s easy to make fun of Ed Sheeran though, isn’t it? Fun, too.