Mother-of-two gets Asbo for 'dreadful' singing in the bath

Caroline Bishop, 39, could be jailed for up to five years if she continues to make the tuneless "highpitched noise".

The mother of two was accused of belting out the likes of Gary Glitter's Leader of the Gang every morning from her bathroom, in an attempt to irritate Alistair and Kerry Law.

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Their feud with Bishop began after they lit a bonfire in their garden to burn autumn leaves. She apparently complained that the smoke was affecting her rabbits.

Mr Law told the hearing at Lincoln Crown Court: "She would sing just to annoy us. I could guarantee I would pull up in my drive and five minutes later she would start singing.

"It was mostly from her bathroom, which is on the ground floor but she would sing outside as well. Sometimes it was three or four times a week.

"It has been hard work living nextdoor to her. We can't sell our house, because people don't want to move here while it's still going on."

He denied claims that he deliberately lit bonfires because he realised it would make Bishop angry, insisting he had only ever lit three.

He also admitted that while spraypainting a fence some of the paint went on his neighbour's car, but said he offered to remove it.

When they first took Bishop to court earlier this year, her legal team claimed the case trivialised the use of anti-social behaviour orders. But magistrates disagreed and imposed a two-year order.

The single mother appealed, claiming she had never set out to annoy anyone, but a judge upheld the original decision.

He said there was "a welter of evidence" that she wanted to upset those living near her - and that her singing was a key part of her efforts.

Mrs Law told the court: "The singing didn't sound normal to me, it was just a high-pitched noise. She would sing most mornings and during the day.

"She became very aggressive towards us. She would go on about the way I dressed and the way I looked. She told me I was a fat old cow.

"At the start of this I was running my own business, but I had to stop. I couldn't deal with it. We never know what we were going to come home to."

Bishop, of Ingham, Lincolnshire, insisted she sang only when she was getting her children ready for school.

She said: "It was just to jolly them along. I don't think I sang loudly. It was just for five or ten minutes. I sing children's songs and nursery rhymes."

She told the court that the Laws had harassed her, and her pet terrier had been attacked by their German Shepherd. Claiming the dispute had wrecked her life, she added: "I have nowhere to turn. I have stopped singing. My children live in silence now."

At the end of a three-day hearing, Recorder Justin Wigoder, sitting with two magistrates, rejected her appeal and ruled the Asbo stay in place.

Under the terms of the order - due to run until January 21, 2009 - Bishop is banned from singing or shouting so she can be heard outside her house.

She is also banned from using abusive language or shouting at her neighbours and from causing harassment to the Laws and another family.

Delivering his judgment, Recorder Wigoder said: "We find the singing proved. It was anti-social behaviour. It was done to annoy and to deliberately affect the Laws' enjoyment of their own premises."

He added that Bishop had made several false claims against her neighbours as part of her campaign.

Neither Bishop - who was also ordered to pay £250 in court costs - nor the Laws would comment after the hearing.