Pensioner's '12-year hate campaign'

James Forster targeted victims including elderly neighbour Molly Christian and two families with a series of threats, damage to their property and offensive letters, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Over a three-year period, he wrote a letter threatening to put a bomb down Mrs Christian's chimney, glued the lock of her front door and scratched the windows of her home, said Michael O'Neill, prosecuting.

He said that when she sold her cottage to the Kellett family, Mr Forster stepped up his campaign by sending graphic pornographic postcards, falsely claiming their daughter, Joanne, was a prostitute.

Mr O'Neill said Mr Forster, 67, also sent a pornographic magazine to the 13-year-old daughter of another of his victims.

Mr Forster conducted his hate campaign between 1987 and 1999 while living in the North Yorkshire village of Manfield, just outside Darlington, the jury heard.

Mr Forster, whose address was given in court as Kirklea, Grunton Lane, Manfield, denies 11 charges, including three of threatening to destroy or damage property, three of damaging property, three of sending indecent or obscene mail, one of incitement to commit burglary, and one of putting a person in fear of violence.

Mr O'Neill said: "Manfield is a small village and over that 12-year period there have been some curious goings on. In Manfield people have been receiving threats and obscene notes, and property has been damaged.

"The man behind this curious campaign is Mr Forster, the defendant, who has for his own reasons, whatever they may be, chosen to harass, bring pressure on, be difficult with several of his neighbours."

Mrs Christian moved into a neighbouring cottage in 1986, where she lived alone.

The 88-year-old said that soon after she moved in "strange things began to happen".

"My window got scratched, conifer trees disappeared out of the garden, a bird box went, I had glue in my lock and I couldn't get in when I came back one night."

Mrs Christian, who arrived at court in a wheelchair, received three letters, including one threatening to put a bomb down her chimney.

In 1988, she sold her home to the Kellett family, who in turn became the subject of the hate campaign.

Paint was thrown at their house, an acid-type substance was thrown over their car, and the couple's daughter, Joanne, received sexually explicit cards.

Mr O'Neill said: "They hadn't been there long when things started to happen to them - garden plants destroyed, tacks thrown over the drive, abusive mail mainly addressed to Mr Kellett's daughter began to arrive, and paint was thrown at the property.

"All the while the Kelletts were living at Manfield the succession of unpleasant letters were received, which suggested in one form or another that his daughter Joanne, a thoroughly respectable young lady, was a prostitute."

Mr Forster is also charged with sending a letter inviting a man to burgle the Kellett's home.

Roy Kellett said his property had been vandalised and scores of abusive letters and notes were sent to his home. Leaflets about his family were also dumped in the hamlet.

After a string of paint attacks on his bungalow, he set up a "tripwire" in a bid to catch the culprit, which he later saw Mr Forster cut with shears.

Mr Kellett said he passed all the mail and leaflets on to the police.

One letter, sent in June 1993, read: "When you get your new car, we are going to smash it up."

And even when the family eventually moved to Butterknowle, Mr Kellett said, the hate mail continued.

Mr Forster did not let his campaign rest there, Mr O'Neill said, and his next target was Eric Stanley Collin, who lived nearby.

Mr O'Neill said: "He was the subject of a curious campaign and letters were distributed quite widely throughout the village suggesting that he was a nosy and officious man, to put it mildly, and also letters claiming that Mr Collin was spreading malicious gossip."

He said that, when police officers raided Mr Forster's house in 1999, they found a list of names which matched the people who were sent letters about Mr Collin.

Next to each name was a suggestion of what Mr Collin had gossiped about them.

Mr O'Neill said Manfield parish clerk Rhona Wayne and her 13-year-old daughter, Catherine, became the next targets.

In May 1999 Mrs Wayne received a letter saying: "We want a parish clerk who lives in Manfield. If you do not resign forthwith, we will give your car the once-over."

More sinister correspondence was sent to her 13-year-old daughter, who received an envelope containing a pornographic magazine including a message.

The court heard the message was written on a torn piece of paper.

Police found a separate piece of paper in Mr Forster's house and a scientist matched the tear marks to that of the letter sent to the girl, Mr O'Neill said.

The trial continues.