Pensioner hurled slugs over neighbours' fence in year-long war over garden trellis

Ann Taylor, 66, hurled snails and slugs into the back garden of retired warehouse manager Mr Window and his wife Nita, 62, after they objected to having trellis attached to their fence.

Taylor's reign of terror has led to her being likened to the comic character Nan Taylor, the abusive pensioner from the Catherine Tate show.

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Taylor even began hurling insults at lung cancer sufferer Tom Windowsaying: "You haven't got long to live - why don't you die now." She also blocked the entrance of the Windows' driveway with her car .

Taylor would even fix a pair of pink washing up gloves on pole in her own garden - so it would show her long suffering neighbours the V sign.

The hate campaign rocked the normally genteel street in Sale, Greater Manchester where the Windows had lived for seven years.

But today Taylor was under the threat of a jail term after she was banned from contacting the Windows under the terms of a restraining order.

She was also ordered to pay £250 costs after being convicted of harassment and criminal damage.

She has since moved out of the area. After the case the Windows told of their ordeal which began after Taylor moved into a modern semi detached next door in April 2005.

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Mrs Window, a retired secretary who has four grandchildren. "The only thing we were ever guilty of was saying we didn't want trellis on our fence.

"We've been married for 44 years and when your husband has got lung cancer it damn well hurts. You don't want anybody making it worse and she made our lives hell. At a time when we needed peace to fight cancer all we were doing was fighting that lunatic."

She added: "When that woman first moved into the house she seemed fine and I would even go in and help her settle. I even decorated her kitchen.

"She was quite a friendly neighbour at first to me, although Tom never completely liked her, but you've got to live next door to people so you have to try.

"The way all this started was very odd. We had asked somebody to do our guttering. Tom would normally do it, but he wasn't well enough so we had asked the local handy man if he'd do it for us.

"Unbeknown to us Ann had asked him to lay some flags for her and there had been an altercation between them while she'd asked him to lay the flags, so he didn't do the job.

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"She wasn't happy that he had done our job and not hers. She started snubbing us every time I walked out." Matters worsened whem the couple returned home from a trip to hospital to find Taylor about to fix a trellis to their fence.

"The fence is ours and on our property but because we objected to her plans the bad language started. Since tnen she's erected a wall, gate posts, doing just what she pleased.

"She would wait until we were out and would be very intimidating. Tom was on chemotherapy and was very poorly at that time.

"There have been occasions when he should have gone to hospital, but he wouldn't go as he didn't want to leave me on my own.

"It was a very stressful time for us as all she did was make it worse."

The couple, logged a diary of all the incidents to give to police. At Manchester magistrates court Taylor denied harassment and criminal damage but was given a 12 month conditional discharge.

She claimed Mrs Window was "extremely nosey and was "always nit picking." She tried to hide her face from photographers when she left court.

One of her former neighbour said: "People compared her to Nan Taylor and that was not just because of the similarity of their names. She was even bigger battleaxe than Nan."

One of her former neighbour said: "People compared her to Nan Taylor and that was not just because of the similarity of their names. She was even bigger battleaxe than Nan."