AN Abergavenny pensioner made her neighbours lives "a misery" in a series of disputes over the boundary between their homes, Blackwood magistrates court heard yesterday.

Dorothy Evans, 79, of Park Crescent, is accused of harassing neighbours Leon and Gemma Stafford between October 10 and November 13 last year.

She also faces a charge of damaging property between October 11 and November 13 last year.

Evans denies both charges.

Prosecutor Phillip Morris told the court Evans caused damage to the Staffords' garden, "ranted, raved and shouted and behaved in an uncivil and unreasonable manner".

He claimed she had poked Mr Stafford in the chest and shaken her fist in the face of Mrs Stafford.

Evans is also alleged to have "growled" in Mrs Stafford's face. The couple moved into a house next door to Mrs Evans on October 10 last year.

Mr Morris said: "There followed a series of events between then and November 13 whereby she set out to make their lives difficult, and in essence, a misery."

He claimed the pensioner damaged panels in the fence between the two houses and dug at soil surrounding the base of a tree in the couple's garden.

Mr Stafford told the court he and his wife, who was then his fiancee, moved from London to the house and that it was their "dream home", where they intended to marry and start a family.

He added they had been made aware by the previous owner that there had been a dispute with Mrs Evans, but they believed it to be a personal one rather than a boundary dispute.

On their first day, the couple said they took Evans flowers as an indication that it was a fresh start but claimed she immediately raised the dispute with her previous neighbour.

Mrs Stafford said after meeting Evans she felt concerned.

"I explained we didn't want to become embroiled in an old dispute," she said.

The couple both said they had tried several times to resolve things amicably, before finally reporting the matter the police on November 13.

Terry Vaux, defending Evans, said she believed the boundary between the two properties was out by six inches.

He suggested that Mr Stafford had been "oversensitive".

"You are being somewhat paranoid, in that two professional young people, well able to express themselves, must accept that a 79-year-old , substantially deaf, lady feeling strongly about a property dispute and expressing that to you, is not harassment," he added.

* The trial continues on Tuesday.