Legal News
An ASBO has been given against a trouble family (30 November 2012)
Date: 30/11/2012
A family who had terrorised their neighbourhood for the past three years at a Horfield estate have been ordered by a judge at Bristol County Court to leave their home within two weeks giving the residents of the estate a big respite.
District Judge Roger Britton heard the council tenant and three of her children, who have not been named for legal reasons, had tormented neighbours on the estate with anti social behaviour since they moved there.
RESIDENTS of a Horfield estate have been given respite from a family who terrorised their neighbourhood for the last three years.
The court also heard the children had damaged property on the estate and threatened home tutors arranged by social services. The mother, who has been under two previous threats of eviction, was also said to have threatened social workers.
Bristol City Council cited 43 incidents of misbehaviour in total, leading to 13 criminal convictions since the family moved in. Among the convictions were theft, assault, a sexual offence and harassment.
Richard Hawkridge, a council anti-social behaviour officer, told the court that the authority was seeking a possession order because of the amount of anti-social behaviour the community has been experiencing.
He added that there were no options left to let the community have some respite from the behaviour.
Local beat officer PC William Gibson told the court how the mother had been abusive towards him on virtually every single opportunity when he had visited her on the estate.
He added that he had been called out numerous times to see one of the children, now aged 14, riding a moped around the garden and taking drugs.
A neighbour who had been assaulted by one of the tenant's sons and threatened by the tenant herself told the court she had moved out of her home and into a refuge to get her and her seven-year-old daughter away from the problem family.
The neighbour added that one of the tenant's sons had already been convicted of sex offences and added and said that she did not want him to come and rape her little daughter.
Linda McLaughlin, a social worker who dealt with the family for 18 months, told the court she was afraid of being hit during one meeting with the tenant. During another, the tenant told her that in four years time she would be where the social worker was and the worker would be in the gutter.
Housing solicitor defending said that the "vast majority" of offences had been carried out by the children and that improvements had been made since April, when the possession order was sought.
But housing solicitor for the council, said the family had not turned a corner but have gone far beyond. He added that he believed there was "no hope for the future" of the family on the estate where the "locals had suffered enough".
District Judge Britton made a possession order demanding the family leave their home within 14 days.