Evicted

Elderly residents at George Thorne House, Park Street, Weymouth, have won their battle to get their neighbour evicted after their landlord Anchor Trust hired a private investigator to film her feeding the birds.

Now, despite a last-minute appeal from her solicitor Tim Glover to give her one more chance, 64-year-old Mrs Simpson will have to leave her flat.

At Weymouth County Court, Recorder Timothy Lamb lifted a suspension he had put on a possession order he had imposed in November after Mrs Simpson promised to stop feeding birds, turning off radiators and opening windows at the block.

He lifted the suspension after hearing that Mrs Simpson, who was sent to Holloway Prison four years ago for causing a health hazard by continually feeding the birds at her former Preston home, had failed to stop doing so after being given one last chance.

Mr Lamb said: "Mrs Simpson has been, and is being, a thorough nuisance to her neighbours."

Mrs Simpson will now have two weeks to pack up and leave - and because Weymouth and Portland Borough Council says she has made herself "intentionally homeless" she will be housed in bed and breakfast accommodation.

At the court yesterday Mrs Simpson claimed that when she got back to George Thorne House after the hearing in November she was isolated and excluded from activities.

She said that she became so depressed that she was forced to take up her old ways again, because "it was the only thing to do".

The court was shown a video of the defendant pushing bread through a wire cage on her window as birds perched on the window sill.

The warden of the flats, John Wileman and neighbour Kathleen Fullerton from Turton Street, also gave evidence.

Mr Wileman admitted locking the communal lounge over the Christmas period - a move that Mrs Simpson said made her "feel like a prisoner" in her own home. And he said that he did not make an effort to make her feel welcome when she came back after the November judgement.

But he said: "I have been told by several residents that she started to feed the birds as soon as she got back from the last court hearing."

Mr Lamb told the court: "This is a case of persistent behaviour by the defendant, in total disregard of the interests of others and in the face of warnings, injunctions and orders of this court - it is not simply a case of feeding the birds."