A spurned boyfriend took revenge on his ex-partner for jilting him by showering her beach hut with foul smelling manure, a court heard.

Richard Mulholland's bizarre attack on Heather Harris' seaside cabin was the culmination of a 'Fatal Attraction-style' harassment campaign against her, the jury was told.

The 63-year-old had previously been issued with a restraining order after he sent the widow a string of 'unpleasant and nasty texts' following the break up of their brief relationship.

Then on March 28 this year he used the cover of darkness to sneak up on her beach hut on Portland to throw dozens of the brown manure pellets over it, it is alleged.

The organic fertiliser gave off a 'pungent' whiff that was only noticed when a friend of Mrs Harris visited the remote hut.

She said it took her 'hours' to clean up afterwards.

When Mrs Harris studied footage captured at 5:37am at the beach hut on a 'trail' camera, normally used for detecting wildlife, she identified the figure as her ex, the court heard.

She informed the police and officers searched Mulholland's house on Portland and found a puffer jacket, beanie hat and rucksack that matched those worn by the man in the footage.

In addition, they found 'noxious' substances including dried bloodmeal, fish sauces, manure pellets and blood, fish and bone.

Mulholland denies that he is the man in the footage and maintains the substances found at his home were to fertilise his garden.

Jane Rowley, prosecuting, said: "The poor lady has lived a nightmare akin to the film Fatal Attraction where she was in a short relationship with Mulholland after the death of her husband but when she ended it he didn't like being rejected.

"She has since been exposed to unpleasant nasty texts and behaviour which meant she went to court to get a restraining order in January 2018.

"Our case is that on March 28 this year (Mulholland) went to Church Ope Cove where Mrs Harris has a beach hut, in doing so breached his restraining order.

"She was alerted to the fact a pungent smelling substance was around her beach hut and a man looking remarkably like the defendant could be seen in footage from a camera installed there.

"When police searched Mr Mulholland's address they recovered items which show he was responsible for it, including fish blood and bone, fish sauce, dried manure and poultry manure pellets.

"Mr Mulholland says that he is not the man in the footage and the items were for use in his garden as a fertiliser."

Heather Harris's husband of 21 years died in November 2014.

She had a brief relationship with Mulholland before breaking up with him at the end of 2015.

She said that since then her beach hut had been targeted in a similar attack with 'smelly muck' being thrown over it.

She said: "My next door neighbour would check on my beach hut during the day when I was at work and he called me to tell me there had been muck thrown over my beach hut.

"I went that evening to clean it up and it was a foul stink, worse than manure. It was brown, grainy stuff which got stuck between the pebbles. It took hours to clean.

"I had put in a camera as someone had been putting smelly muck at my hut before that.

"When I reviewed the camera footage I recognised it was him so I alerted the police."

Mulholland denies a charge of breaching his restraining order.

The trial continues at Bournemouth Crown Court.