Couple Tried to Have Their Neighbor Committed to Boost Property Value
A banker and his artist wife wanted a bigger backyard so badly that they terrorized their deaf, old, retired-church-warden neighbor for five years — at one point even filing false reports in an attempt to have her declared insane and committed.
British couple Peter and Kim Bayliss were recently fined more than $540,000 for terrorizing Sarah Saxton over a dispute involving 12 inches of land in between the Bayliss and Saxton properties.
The court heard that Mrs Saxton had enjoyed a right of way from the back of her property which ran along the back of the house belonging to Betty Bayliss, the banker's mother.
When Mrs Bayliss went into care in autumn 2008, leaving her son in charge, the couple instigated the dispute over the right of way and possession of a tiny strip of back garden.
A court found that Saxton suffered a whiplash injury after she was "violently grabbed and shaken by her neighbour" when she crossed over the property in question in 2009. The court also noted the couple made multiple false allegations to social services and police in an effort to have Saxton sectioned or arrested.
Apparently the couple believed if Saxton were "out of the way," the property would have more value.
During the verdict, the judge referred to their campaign as "five years of living hell."
