'Neighbour from Hell' Liam Bain donned Spiderman and Super Mario masks in reign of terror against pensioners

Liam Bain was jailed after a court heard his bizarre behaviour left residents feeling intimidated, depressed and afraid to go out. Some even considered moving house to escape him.

The 34-year-old was jailed for 18 weeks and also banned from his own street for five years under a restraining order, meaning his family could now have to move out.

Bain was said to have shadow boxed in the road outside neighbours’ bungalows and shown off by taking his shirt off and doing press-ups in nothing more than a pair of shorts.

His weird antics also involved challenging visiting workmen to a punch-up, drenching two elderly women with a garden hose, shouting abuse, staring into people’s homes, making threats, spitting in gardens, hanging out of a window flashing ‘V’ signs, blasting out loud music late at night and blocking in people’s cars with his Transit van.

He was often seen in the street wearing a variety of masks including Super Mario, Spiderman, a paramilitary face covering and a Balaclava as he goaded residents.

Jailing him for 18 weeks, Recorder Kevin Slack told him: “You caused those residents untold misery.”

He added: “Some of that maybe was childish behaviour, but that doesn’t do full justice to the scale of the misery your behaviour caused.

“There is no other way to describe your behaviour as the neighbour from hell.”

The court was told that the case had been brought because of Bain’s irrational behaviour towards his neighbours in Higher Furlong and Tranmoor, two connecting cul-de-sacs of bungalows in the village of Walmer Bridge.

Barrister Hanifa Patel, prosecuting, said victims were largely pensioners, some up to the age of 80, who just wanted to be left in peace to enjoy their retirement.

After numerous complaints to police Bain was initially charged with five offences of stalking for which the maximum jail sentence would have been five years. But he eventually pleaded guilty to five counts of the lesser charge of harassment which carried a maximum term of just six months.

Join our new WhatsApp Community to get the latest news and top stories from across Lancashire directly to your phone.

A dozen of the residents were in the public gallery of the court to hear Bain sent down. Four of them read out personal victim statements to the judge telling how he had blighted their lives.

One 80-year-old man and his 76-year-old wife who had lived in Higher Furlong for more than 40 years told how their lives in the “quiet” cul-de-sac had suddenly been turned upside down when Bain moved in. Things got so bad that they called in the police.

One day Bain was alleged to have told the wife: “It’s time someone blacked your eye.” When her husband confronted Bain he was given abuse and then a whole catalogue of intimidating incidents began.

As a result of his behaviour the couple had CCTV cameras fitted to their home. Another couple who also had cameras recorded more than 100 incidents in front of their house as Bain bullied and harassed them.

One incident was shown in court as an example of his behaviour as he abused the couple of their drive as they were gardening.

Bain, they said, would lean out of his window and spit at them. He would drive his van at them as they were out walking or cycling and then veer off at the last moment.

Eventually the man had to resort to hiding behind a hedge to avoid him, saying he was “shaken up” and felt depressed by his constant bullying. If the couple saw him out they would rush into their house to get away.

For the latest Preston & Lancashire headlines in your inbox, sign up for the LEP newsletter.

The couple started living and sleeping in the back of their house because he would stare in through their windows. The blinds were constantly drawn and the house was in darkness most of the time because of his bullying.

One resident said he and his wife had moved into their bungalow in Tranmoor to make it their retirement home. But Bain constant stalking had “ruined all our plans.”

Another couple said they were “emotional wrecks” because of his behaviour as he mocked them, abused them and caused them continuous distress “by his venom and hatred” towards them.

The victims claimed their health had suffered as a result of Bain’s behaviour. He was alleged to have taunted one couple saying: “You lot can’t do anything about it.” They also claimed he boasted: “I will still be here when all of you are dead.”

One man was in tears after telling the court: “I have tried to ask him what I have done for him to hate me so much. I embarrassed myself by pleading with him to leave me alone. The fact that I was begging him seemed to empower him even more.”

The residents agreed that since Bain had been arrested and banned from the neighbourhood as a condition of being on bail their lives had been totally different. One said: “I am enjoying the freedom of being able to do all my jobs. It’s an absolute relief I can come home and enjoy my own home.”

And he added: “He has devastated our lives day after day. All we want is to be left alone to enjoy our own village, which isn’t a lot to ask.”

Lawyer Ellen Shaw, representing Bain, urged the judge to keep any restraining order down to a maximum of one year because of the impact it would have on his family if he wasn’t able to live with his wife and children.

Jailed for causing ‘untold misery’

She said the offences only covered a period of just short of 12 months, although the court heard the problems had been ongoing for several years.

She also asked Recorder Slack to suspend any prison sentence arguing it would be more productive in the long run for him. Bain, she said, had shown genuine remorse for his behaviour.

But the judge dismissed both suggestions, saying Bain’s actions had “caused the residents untold misery.”

And he told Bain: “It came as a surprise to me that you initially sought to blame your neighbours and said it was ‘six of one and half a dozen of the other.’ Only later did you say you accepted you caused concern to your neighbours.”

He had claimed, said the judge, that the complaints had been “trivial” and that he himself was being victimised.

Recorder Slack concluded that because of the risk he posed to his former neighbours and the serious nature of his offences meant only an immediate custodial sentence could be justified.

He gave Bain a six months prison term, reduced to 18 weeks because of a 25 per cent reduction for his guilty pleas.

And he told Bain: “You taunted that there was nothing anyone could do about your conduct. (But) there is something the court can do.”

He imposed a five-year restraining order preventing Bain from going to Higher Furlong and Tranmoor or making any contact with any of the victims in the case.

He added: “I don’t think one year would provide adequate protection.”