A court has authorised a retrial for a lady who is said to have waged a hate campaign against the neighbours and been dubbed the “berserk neighbour from hell.”
Trevor Dempsey’s opulent London home in Chingford reportedly sustained damage from Joanne Shreeves that cost hundreds of pounds, including repairs to the fence, the garden flowers, and a specially made potting shed.
Video recorded by Mr. Dempsey’s, 62, and his ex-girlfriend Sandra Durdin, 58, purports to show Shreeves laughing and spitting at her neighbours in June.
The footage also shows Shreeves, the daughter of the property’s owner and former Spurs manager Peter Shreeves, shaking the fence between the two homes in Chingford’s The Ridgeway while yelling, “You’re a nasty c***, you are.” A filthy, f***ing c***. What happens to unclean c***s, you ask?
The 51-year-old has always claimed that her neighbours altered CCTV video of her spitting and cursing.
The trial went forward in her absence and she was convicted of assault, criminal damage and two counts threatening behaviour with intent in regard to the pair by a judge at Stratford Magistrates’ Court in May.
Shreeves claimed she was too unwell to attend her trial, which the judge recognised and overturned her convictions.
Shreeves originally requested that her case be reopened in June, and after a hearing yesterday, District Judge William Nelson granted her request. He set the retrial date for November 30 at Stratford Magistrates’ Court.
The court previously heard testimony that Shreeves launched her violent hate campaign when she returned to her childhood home in February 2019 after a dispute with her neighbours about a concrete pillar that Mr. Dempsey had knocked down in the driveway and restored without their consent.
Before things went south, the families had been close friends for more than 20 years and had even attended parties at one other’s homes.
Over the next 18 months, it is said that Shreeves broke through her neighbor’s fence, toppled their garden flowers, and destroyed their custom-built potting shed, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to their property.
On October 24, 2020, when Shreeves threw stones over his fence, Mr. Dempsey said that she was acting like a “person possessed”
‘There was a tremendous crunch – she went wild,’ he claimed.
Shreeves was seen on camera pushing a huge broom over the property fence as he walked up and down the garden.
Ms. Durdin said that Shreeves was “constantly” threatening to murder her on their suburban Chingford neighbourhood, where the fake Tudor homes go for $1 million.
The owner of the home, Peter Shreeves, the father of Joanna Shreeves, was described as “close friends” by Ms. Durdin and her husband.
Additionally, it seemed that Shreeves spit at Ms. Durdin’s son Mitchell Durdin as they passed one other in the alleyway between the two homes, as shown on CCTV tape.
Shreeves has been released on bail until the retrial despite his denials of assault, criminal property damage, and two counts of threatening behaviour.
Since then, Mr. Dempster and Ms. Durdin have relocated to Kent’s Ramsgate.
District Judge William Nelson found Shreeves guilty on all counts at the trial in May, including assault by common assault in connection with the spitting.
I have heard her spit and watched her spit, and it is obvious to me that their spit fell on him [Mr. Mitchell], thus it is plain from the tape that it was purposeful, the man said.
“Therefore, it is the illegal use of violence, and I find her guilty of that crime,” the judge said.