A nightmare neighbour who breached her retraining order within an hour of arriving home from prison will be released today.
Jayne Goodman, 64, appeared in court again on Monday just months after being sentenced for stalking her neighbours. Bradford Crown Court heard on Monday that in relation to that sentence on October 13 last year, Goodman, of Oldham Road in Ripponden, had admitted shining torches into her neighbour’s property and throwing wooden panels.
A restraining order for ten years had been put in place, prohibiting her from contacting the victim and Goodman – who had been remanded into custody before then – was released.
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Prosecutor Lauren Smith said she arrived home on October 16 and within an hour began harassing her neighbours again.
She said: “There were six separate occasions [within an hour]. She used offensive hand gestures and made sexual gestures to the woman’s CCTV. Within her statement, she describes the impact that the offences had on her.”
The woman said: “Me and my family are on edge knowing she’s in prison and is being released.”
It was said the victim’s daughter is having counselling due to Goodman’s previous behaviour. The woman also described having to take time off work due to the impact on her mental health.
(Image: Yorkshire Live)
Ms Smith said: “On the 16th October the woman called the police and they attended at 10pm where the officers found a police baton behind the front door. She [Goodman] was interviewed and gave an account accepting engaging in the behaviour but denied it was directed at the victim.”
The court was told that on a number of the six occasions captured on camera, Goodman was actually inside her own property but “simply put her arm out of the door.”
His Honour Judge Burn told the court: “While I have a lot of sympathy with the position that the victim I have found that there was, in this particular offending seems to arise from the fact that the CCTV was overlooking her garden and property…It is probably a breach of her Article 8 rights. The pre-sentence report uses the word ‘monitored.'”
The court heard that Goodman had 14 previous convictions for 19 offences and Jo Shepherd, mitigating, said that she had made the gestures “out of frustration.”
Ms Shepherd said: “She has lost her job she loved. She’s a 64-year-old pensioner and has explained to me that her mum died on the 2nd of January and she was denied by the prison to attend the funeral. She has suffered a great deal in custody.”
Judge Burn handed Goodman a sentence of 16-weeks in prison but said due to her being remanded since her arrest in October, she will be released imminently. He told her: “Now there are two things really. The first is that the restraining order imposed last time back in October will continue. It is very important that you completely ignore your neighbour.
“I have amended the restraining order so that you are able to instruct – and I’m not suggesting it’s cheap – that you are able to instruct a solicitor to write to your neighbour to tell them that they need to move the line of sight of the cameras so they are not overlooking your property.
“I will say that you have a right to a private life and that right now is violated…For goodness sake when you get home just don’t get involved with your neighbours at all.
“Perhaps on your way home maybe you should pop into the solicitors office to see what you can do.”
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