FROM deafening noise to death threats and physical violence, Nightmare Neighbour Next Door has been highlighting the horror stories of UK residents since 2014.
This week, one of the long-running disputes spilled over into the courts, as Lillie Goddard and her family were ordered to remove their eyesore static caravan from their home in Swindon, Wiltshire.
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The self-styled Lady Goddard – who bought aristocratic titles for herself and husband Mark some years ago – had already been forced to remove a shipping container from her £170,000 home after complaints from furious neighbours.
Swindon County Court has now ordered the removal of the static caravan where Lillie – who is separated from Mark – lives with her disabled mother while renting out rooms in the house.
But Lillie is not the only one whose antisocial behaviour has come back to bite them after appearing on the Channel 5 show.
Here’s what happened to some of the more memorable Nightmare Neighbours.
X Factor flop in 13 stone weight loss
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The Chawner family appeared on Nightmare Neighbour in 2016, after racking up over 500 complaints from residents in Greater Manchester.
They were finally evicted after upsetting neighbours with loud TV, dogs barking all night and fights in the street.
One neighbour, who remained anonymous on the show, revealed: “I’m glad they no longer live here as they made our lives an absolute misery.”
Dad Philip insisted the family were “victimised” but after moving to a new neighbourhood, they faced fresh accusations of threatening behaviour towards one of their new neighbours.
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But the family were no strangers to TV even before they featured on show.
Daughter Emma had tried out for The X Factor in 2006 and 2007 and been branded a “flump” by Simon Cowell, only to return a couple of years later with sister Sam, and being unkindly called “The Teletubbies”.
The family also appeared on Jeremy Kyle in 2015, with Emma accusing mum Audrey of abandoning the family and being abusive.
The family, who were branded “too fat to work” and once weighed in at a combined weight of over 90 stone, also appeared in Lorraine Kelly’s Big Fat Challenge in 2010 but three years later were slammed for claiming £342,000 in benefits.
But in 2020 Emma, now 32, showed off a weight loss of almost 13 stone after ditching cakes and crisps and drinking more water.
Alongside a slimmed down picture on social media, she said: “Two years and a half ago I weighed 28 stone. I am now 15 stone 9. Thank you everyone for your support.
“I did a 30-day detox last month and lost 11lb. My secret has been no snacking and drinking plenty of fluid.”
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Murder rap
Newcastle resident Rachel Ayr was subjected to a reign of terror by neighbour Clare Humble that drove her away from her home of 11 years – after a dispute over smashed plant pots.
Rachel, who appeared in series 4 of the show, in 2015, was so terrified by the threats of violence from her aggressive neighbour she locked her disabled dad in the house when she went out for fear he would be attacked.
The trouble started when Humble and some friends began smashing the pots outside Rachel’s home and she reported the incident to the police.
Rachel, who has a brittle bone condition, claims Humble reacted by grabbing her ponytail, smashing her into a washing machine and raining blows on her head.
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Humble was arrested but continued a campaign of harassment, even when Rachel moved from her home in Gosforth to another address.
“My convertible car was scratched, there would be stuff all over the garden and she was constantly at my house just to let us know she was there,” she said.
“It was horrific. I had to lock my dad in the house every time I went out, leaving him with the back door key.”
But Rachel had a lucky escape. Humble, who was already convicted of assaulting her 73-year-old mother in 2008, went on to murder another vulnerable adult, her partner Peter Hedley.
She subjected him to a sustained attack, smashing his face, stabbing him with broken crockery and causing horrific damage to his eye before attempting to burn his body and finally dumping him in nearby woodlands.
She is now serving a minimum of 20 years in jail after being convicted in 2015.
Rachel said she “felt sick” when she heard about the murder.
“I thought it could have been me she killed,” she said.
“It’s like an emotional rollercoaster for me, knowing she has done this to somebody. There but for the grace of God it could have been me.”
Filthy home with 22 dogs
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After their kennel business was repossessed over a fraud convicition, pals Janet Perrie and Fiona Hope moved to Dipple, in Ayrshire, along with their 22 dogs.
But their neighbours in the quiet village were horrified by the noise, smell and mess they brought with them and flooded the council with complaints.
The pair – who appeared on the show in 2014 – eventually did a runner from the property, moving to Cumbria and leaving their Ayrshire landlord Colin Burns around £20,000 in rent arrears.
The furious landlord said he had never seen “such filth” after they “totally trashed the property” and left it littered with dog faeces.
Hope was fined £500 for robbing the cottage of a plasma telly, power tools and kids’ toys.
Perrie, 65, had form, having been jailed for 22 months in 2009 after embezzling more than £130,000 from the Scottish Conservatives, where she worked as a political assistant.
In December, the Daily Record reported the owners of their Cumbrian home were facing a court battle to evict them, after they failed to leave as agreed, 11 months earlier.
Maggie and Gary Philip said the women owed over £7,000 in arrears.
“They have 24 dogs and over 100 ducks at the house and nowhere to put them – it’s bizarre!” Maggie told the paper.
“Those two are just absolutely appalling.”
Indecent exposure
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Mandy Dunford was in search of a rural idyll when she moved to a remote farmhouse in North Yorkshire.
What she got was a 10-year reign of terror from pervy neighbour Kenneth Ward, who frequently dropped his trouser and waved his tackle at her.
The pensioner would hide in holly bushes before exposing himself and even climbed a ladder to do so over a garden wall.
While he appeared on Nightmare Neighbour in 2015, the unrepentant Ward claimed he would continue to torment Mandy when he was released from a jail sentence for the separate offence of stockpiling firearms.
Retired police officer Mandy took him to court a year later and Teesside Crown Court banned him from returning to the home his family had owned since 1640, and excluded him from an area of five miles around the property.
“I’m absolutely elated,” Mandy said outside court. “Sitting in court was unbearable, it was horrible, it was make or break.”
Excrement hurled at houses
Residents of a quiet cul-de-sac in Leicestershire found themselves subject to hellish abuse from neighbour Leslie Collins after they complained about noise from an illegal waste business he ran from his home.
The pensioner targeted the Pollard, Walne and Elliott families by mooning them, shouting abuse, cutting holes in hedges and spying on them with binoculars.
He also threw buckets of human excrement mixed with oil and water over the fence into the garden and up the walls of next door neighbours Michael and Shirley Pollard.
Michael Pollard said: “In the end I installed a CCTV camera in a tree in the garden that captured him throwing excrement and putting cement down my drain.
“We had nails and glass put on the drive and I must have had 25 punctures over the years.”
After a ten-year reign of terror, the carpenter was jailed for 34 months in 2013.
After the hearing at Leicester Crown Court, the Pollards and two other couples who attended court spoke of their delight at the jail sentence and said it was “’like winning the lottery”.
Joan Elliott said: “Now he’s in prison, we’re going to have peace and quiet at last. We’re all ecstatic as he was a nasty piece of work.”
