A MAN has spoken of his horror of being wrongly accused by his neighbour of being a paedophile and a pervert.

The man, who The Mail has chosen not to name, was harassed ‘constantly’ by his neighbour who was yesterday given a restraining order against him and his family.

Pensioner Margaret Linda Nelson, of Eamont Close on Walney, called her neighbour a number of derogatory names including ‘paedophile’, ‘thief’ and ‘pervert’, South Cumbria Magistrates Court heard.

The 71-year-old was found guilty of harassment, which happened between January and July this year.

She alleged her neighbour had at one point gestured out the window of his house towards his crotch.

She also claimed he had once ‘dropped his towel’ in front of her outside his house.

The victim told the court he would often hear a ‘daft wolf laugh’ from his neighbour when he left the house or see her looking at him with a ‘big grin on her face’.

“It was constant,” he said. “Every time I went out the front door it was like she knew I was there and you would get shouted at.”

The court was shown a video taken by the victim of the defendant appearing to unscrew screws in her neighbour’s fence. When confronted she appeared to pose for the camera.

Describing the effect the harassment had on him, he said: “It made me feel anxious and distressed.

“It doesn’t go away.

“It has made scared to leave my front door without being threatened.”

He said he had been worried Nelson would spread rumours about him to affect him in his job.

They have lived next door to each other for 13 years and were said to have ‘fallen out’ around eight years ago.

The victim’s wife told the court she had witnessed the name calling.

He denied there was any reason he should have been called a pervert, a paedophile or a thief.

He told the court he had told the council she had been living with her son and not declared it and had set up a camera to point towards his driveway.

Explaining why she called him a thief, she said she had seen the man, a taxi driver at the time, take money from under the front seat of his car. He said this was his week’s takings.

Nelson, who works for charity Furness Careers, told the court she felt intimidated by her neighbour.

The victim was asked by defence solicitor Michael Graham whether he tried to control his neighbour by supposedly pointing the CCTV camera at her house and complaining to the council.

“You’re simply a flat track bully,” Mr Graham said, but he replied ‘no’.

Nelson was given a restraining order banning her from contacting the family for 18 months.

She was also sentenced to a curfew between 6pm and 6am for the next 14 weeks.