A 78-YEAR-old neighbour from hell, who called himself “the Godfather of Castlemorton”

has been jailed for six months.

Richard Dawe was caught on CCTV throwing a stone and breaking a garage window at his neighbour’s home on Castlemorton Common, near Malvern, in November 2011.

He was found guilty of criminal damage at Worcester Magistrates Court in June and was sent to crown court for sentencing as he was in breach of both a suspended sentence and a 15- year Crasbo (criminal anti-social behaviour order).

Judge Robert Juckes told Dawe that he should have learned at his age how to conduct himself without getting under his neighbours’ feet.

“But you have not,” he said. “You have found it necessary to intimidate, frustrate, harass and annoy those about you.

“The courts have done everything to avoid a prison sentence.”

He gave Dawe, of Hollybed Street, Castlemorton, three months for breaching the suspended sentence and three months combined for the other offences, making a total of six months’ immediate custody.

He is likely to serve three with the rest on licence.

“The court has to enforce its orders and the neighbours are entitled to this short rest from your activities,”

the judge said.

Stephen Davies, prosecuting, told the court the problems with his neighbours stretched back to 1998 including incidences of making bird noises and hitting a neighbour with a shovel.

In 2010, he breached his Asbo by going past his neighbour singing Life Is A Cabaret and making insulting remarks.

On another occasion he shouted: “Look out, the Don’s about.”

In 2005, he was made the subject of a 15-year Crasbo banning him from contact with neighbours, using any threatening words or behaviour, driving a vehicle or a bicycle to annoy other people or making any unjustified noise.

It was one of West Mercia’s longest orders.

He was jailed for a year in 2004 after breaching another order and assaulting a woman with a walking stick.

Dawe, a former builder, failed to get the Crasbo overturned.

Richard Bond, defending, argued the neighbour disputes were not one-way traffic. He said Dawe’s access to a shared septic tank had been cut off.

Mr Bond said Dawe had thrown mud because his neighbour’s dogs were making a noise and he had not intended to break the window.

Following the stone-throwing, he had not been allowed to live at his home, and his son and daughter were having to look after his 81-year-old wife.

The judge ordered that the Crasbo should continue after Dawe’s release.

Inspector Jane Francis, who leads local policing for Malvern Hills, said: “For years Mr Dawe has harassed, alarmed and cause great distress to his neighbours.

“A prison sentence gives Mr Dawe an opportunity to consider how his behaviour has been intolerable and, importantly, provides some respite for all those affected by his anti-social behaviour.”