"EVIL" pensioner Elaine Meredith (pictured), today behind bars after gouging obscenities on her neighbours' cars, says she will go on hunger strike.

Meredith, 63, told the Argus before her conviction on six counts of criminal damage she would refuse food if jailed.

She said: "I don't accept that I have committed these offences and if I am sent to prison I will starve myself to death."

The pensioner, branded "pure evil" by the police officer who led the investigation into her reign of terror, yesterday received a six month sentence.

Cardiff crown court Recorder Charles Cook described her as "malevolent," and said her jail term would be "respite" for the community she terrorised.

He said: "I have watched you in the witness box and you are not feeble-minded and I have to say the impression you gave was of a manipulative person.

"The only thing that I can see wrong with you is that you are malevolent.

"Your fellow citizens deserve respite from your malign tendencies."

Meredith had refused to pay a fine, saying she was innocent.

Defending barrister Eugene Egon told the court: "She does not mean to sound cheeky but she simply remains adamant that she is not guilty. If a fine formed part of her punishment she would not pay it and she would not comply with any community rehabilitation order."

He added that her actions were "bizarre, nonsensical and baffling."

Meredith targeted six car owners living near her then home in Margaret's Way, Caldicot, between February and December 2000.

She was caught when one of her victims, Gary Smith, made a citizen's arrest after seeing her near his black Peugeot 306 just moments after it was damaged.

She denied the attacks, but in July a jury at Newport crown court convicted her of six counts of criminal damage.

Meredith was already serving a conditional discharge for tearing off a windscreen- wiper and pouring silicone onto the bonnet of a neighbour's car.

She will serve three months for the criminal damage and three months for breaching the conditional discharge, consecutively.

The Recorder commended Mr Smith, awarding him £100 reward from court funds. Meredith's criminal record stretches back to 1955, and includes threatening to firebomb former neighbours on Newport's Duffryn estate.

Detective Constable Martin Harries, of Caldicot CID, who investigated the case, had branded her "pure evil."

He told the Argus: "I hope this sends out a signal to the whole community that we will not tolerate this behaviour."

Referring to her hunger strike threat, he added: "It would not surprise me. It is not beyond the realms of possibility for her - that is the sort of woman she is."