“If people are trapped in properties they can’t get rid of
and they are mentally exhausted after years of this kind of stuff, we shouldn’t
be surprised when suicide seems the only way out.”
Hounded-to-death-by-neighbours-from-hell
The recent suicide of Dr Susan Dow, has shown that the
authorities are still not listening to the people. In 2007, Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca
died after Fiona set fire to their car.
The authorities had failed to protect her, and her daughter from the Neighbours
from Hell.
Fiona had called police more than 30 times over a ten year
period. Her mother, neighbours and an MP
had all contacted police on her behalf as well.
Fiona and her family were hounded by groups of up to 16 youngsters at a time. Her home was repeatedly attacked with stones, eggs and flour. Bottles were smashed outside her home and the youngsters hung outside her home for hours on end – shouting taunts and insults. Fiona’s younger brother, was threatened with a knife and locked in a shed. Police did not respond to this incident until four days later.
fiona-pilkington-police-misconduct-proceedings
‘Chris Dean’, another
person who has suffered from living next door to the Neighbours from Hell, said
that, “I don’t believe there’s an MP in the land who hasn’t had a letter or a
visit from a Fiona Pilkington at the end of her rope,” he wrote in the Daily
Express at the time. “The difference between Fiona and me is that she actually
went through with it.”
Chris states, “We logged reports for two-and-a-half years
when youths started throwing projectiles at our windows and launching kung-fu
kicks at our door every time they went past. Our home became a place of torment
but I felt trapped in it for fear of what might happen if I wasn’t there,” he
recalls.
“But that wasn’t the
half of it. The reason my heart aches for people like Suzanne Dow is that I
know what it’s like when the authorities turn their backs.
“Time after time we
would ring the police to report an incident and be told there was no record of
any problem. It took a while to grasp that the police computer had no means of
grouping regular reports of low-level harassment at the same address. We
thought things would improve when we were referred to a friendly beat policemen
who told us to email him with every incident. We did so but he was transferred
shortly after we met him and didn’t bother to tell us. It got to the point
where we had complained about 50 incidents but they still said they had never
heard of us. That’s when you start to lose your sanity.”
Mercedes de Dunewic is another person who has suffered. In 2002, during one 29 day period, 23 windows at her home were smashed. Her car was wrecked, dog muck and fireworks were shoved through her letterbox and the words ‘Die Bitch’ were painted on her front door. In four years, she reported more than 180 crimes to the police. She appealed to her local MP.
In 2005, Linda Walker reached the end of her tether. She had suffered two years of vandalism and
abuse. Police had ignored at least 15
complaints. She fired an airgun at the
feet of a group of youths. She was
jailed, but freed after 36 days amid a national outcry at the way she had been
treated. She was sacked from her job though,
after being a schoolteacher for 25 years.
Moving the Neighbours from Hell to another location doesn’t work. It just transfers the problem to another place – another neighbour.
fiona-pilkington-francecca-hardwick-disability
When will the authorities realise that there is a problem? How many more suicides and deaths will there be? People living next door to the Neighbours from Hell are crying out for help - and there is no-one listening.
