Van driver who falsely claimed his next-door neighbour was a paedophile and threw human faeces into couple’s back garden in a five-year vendetta over parking is found guilty of harassment

• Pest Controller Roy Henshall, 55, terrorised next-door neighbour Mark Jones
• The campaign began when Henshall complained Mr Jones was blocking his van  
• Henshall claimed Mr Jones was a paedophile and threw faeces into his garden
• He also painted a cross on Mr Jones and his wife’s gate when they got Covid

A van driver who falsely claimed his next-door neighbour was a paedophile and threw human faeces into his back garden in a five-year vendetta over parking has been found guilty of harassment.

Pest controller Roy Henshall, 55, terrorised Mark Jones, after complaining his new neighbour would regularly park his taxi ‘bumper-to-bumper’ behind his Ford Transit.

During a five-year hate campaign, which started only a week after after Mr Jones and his wife Nulla moved in, it was claimed Henshall threw condemned meat into their garden for the couple’s Jack Russell Terrier to eat. 

Henshall also threw ‘bags of human faeces’, pushed piles of junkmail through their letterbox, hung ladies underwear on their washing line and painted a silver cross on their back gate after the couple contracted Covid.

Pest controller Roy Henshall, 55, terrorised Mark Jones, after complaining his new neighbour would regularly park his taxi ‘bumper-to-bumper’ behind his Ford Transit

During a five-year hate campaign, which started only a week after after Mr Jones and his wife Nulla moved in, it was claimed Henshall threw condemned meat into their garden for the couple’s Jack Russell Terrier to eat

He was eventually charged by police after the Joneses installed a Ring security camera which was said to have captured Henshall ‘growling’ outside their front door in St Helens, Merseyside.

He was filmed saying: ‘Piece of f**ing s**t’, ‘Jones you are going to get taught a lesson’, and ‘Never f***ing learns, never f***ing learns.’

Other chilling warnings caught on the device included ‘I am going to get you Jones’ and ‘we will get you, you paed’.

In a further clip, Henshall was seen sticking up two fingers to the house across the street and then to the Joneses. 

He was convicted of two charges of harassment after 33 clips recorded by the security device were played to JPs at Sefton Magistrates’ Court.

The incidents began in 2017 after the couple moved in next door to Henshall, who then began complaining Mr Jones’s taxi cab was being parked just a ‘credit card’ width from his van, making it impossible for him to open his rear doors.

Mr Jones told police: ‘From the very first week we moved in, the intimidation started. He has talked about us on the street, making horrific statements that he has made about myself and my wife.

‘He threatened that he would make me lose my taxi badge, that he would get it revoked by contacting the council. He also told me that I was a paedophile and to stop looking at little children across the road.

‘There are a lot of other things he has basically shouted at me. He would spit at the front door. We have had rubbish thrown into the backyard. We have had a couple of bags of human faeces thrown into the back yard.

‘There has been food thrown into the back garden, directed at our Jack Russell dog we used to have. Constantly rubbish is getting thrown over.

He was convicted of two charges of harassment after 33 clips recorded by the security device were played to JPs at Sefton Magistrates’ Court (pictured)

‘Black ladies knickers were thrown over and tied to the washing line.

‘During the pandemic, my wife and I went down with Covid and we had a silver cross sprayed on our back gate.’

The couple were advised by police to get a ring doorbell, to protect themselves and get solid evidence.

Mr Jones continued: ‘We were very distressed, very upset. I do not deserve this kind of treatment from someone. We have not instigated this at all, it’s very very upsetting. It is kind of an intimidation thing. 

On one occasion, Mr Jones claims he returned home from work and Henshall came out and began a making sexual gesture towards him as he sat in his car. 

‘I was shocked and disgusted. I have done absolutely nothing ever to instigate this harassment,’ Mr Jones said.

He added: ‘I now go to work a different way. I usually go for a run every morning but I have had to change the route as I have been followed. My wife walks the dog, she has to change as well as she was followed. 

‘We are constantly, constantly, looking over our shoulder to see if we are being intimidated, harassed or followed.

Mrs Jones, who has been treated for cancer, said: ‘We’ve always tried to park considerately. My car was parked outside our house and Mark would park in a nearby street and son would parked his car anywhere he could. 

‘But this man started parking bumper to bumper with our car. Then the abuse, physical, verbal and mental just started from there.

‘He is constantly standing on the street goading us. He does the most ridiculous stupid dance you have ever seen in your life with a vile grin and the most evil eyes. 

Hensall also threw ‘bags of human faeces’, pushed piles of junkmail through their letterbox, hung ladies underwear on their washing line and painted a silver cross on their back gate after the couple contracted Covid

Mrs Jones said Henshall is ‘like a child in the playground and wants to have a fight with Mark’. 

She claimed Henshall follows her to the park with her dog and constantly harasses Mr Jones when he is on his run. 

‘He petrifies me. He makes my flesh crawl,’ she added.

Henshall, who has lived at his address for 26 years, claimed he felt ‘ganged up on’ by the Joneses and the neighbours across the street and said most of he clips were fabricated.

Henshall said: ‘The reason relations broke down was because he was parking a credit card away from my back bumper. I have a small transit van and I need to open the back doors. 

‘I have my own business in pest control and tree surgery and I use my van every day. It is important that I have access to it. The only way I can get my chainsaw and tools into the van is through the back doors.

‘I said to him ‘I thought you were going to park responsibly’. His response was ‘I can park where I want. I pay my road tax’ and I thought if that’s the way it’s going to be the relationship has gone now.’

‘I just feel very stressed out. I think it’s just bizarre that it came to this over parking. If everyone just parked in their own front door and gave a little bit of space there would be no issues.

‘I very rarely park outside my own home now. I park at the top of the street. It’s not worth the confrontation.

Henshall will be sentenced later following the preparation of reports. JP Gareth Dykes told him: ‘We find Mr and Mrs Jones to be a credible witnesses. 

‘From all the evidence we have heard, it is clear you have pursued a course of conduct over a sustained period of time which you knew or ought to have known amounted to the harassment of Mr and Mrs Jones.’

Source: Read Full Article