ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

COUNT 15

A foul-mouthed family was named and shamed on 1st March 2005, after
subjecting neighbours to a five-year campaign of terror and violence.
Benefits scrounger Stacey Weedon, 36, and her two daughters, both teenage
mothers, were all handed three-year Anti Social Behaviour Orders.
Residents had complained the family smashed windows and doors, fought
with neighbours, hurled abuse at them and played loud music into the early
hours. The orders ban Stacey and her daughters Charlie, 16, and Billie, 15,
from threatening or intimidating anyone living in the entire London
Borough of Havering. Mrs Weedon’s layabout boyfriend Leslie Giggins, 42,
was earlier made the subject of a five-year Asbo. The family are now facing
eviction from their squalid terrace house in Harold Hill, Romford, Essex.
Stratford magistrates heard how one neighbour was so traumatised she was
forced to flee her home. And another elderly disabled woman who lived next
door, had CCTV cameras installed outside her house.

The abuse became so bad, officials from the local housing association had
to be accompanied by a police escort when they visited the family. A squad
of eight police officers were put on standby to deal with Giggins. Terrified
Sarah Kent told how she was subjected to a savage attack in her home by
the three women. She said she came to the rescue of an injured victim after
fighting broke out outside. Weedon and her daughters kicked in the front door and battered her with a pottery bowl, as she clutched her petrified
four-year-old son to her chest. Ms Kent said: “I got very bad headaches after
that.” The windows in her car were also smashed, and she was so
traumatised she moved out. When she returned to collect her mail her
home was pelted with stones. She was later abused by Billie when she went
to collect her child from school. She received a hoax call at her house and
police were sent round after being told there were stolen goods inside. “I
was very, very scared. I have three children and I have to think of them. I
was really scared for my life. I had to leave. When I went back they tried to break in, shouting abuse and said they were going to kill me. I can’t go back because every time I do, I get abuse.”

The court heard that the women also attacked Ms Kent’s mother, who runs a stall at
Romford Market. Billie, who was seven months pregnant at the time, is alleged to have
struck Eileen Kent with an umbrella as she screamed a torrent of abuse at her. The
stall was overturned in the melee. Eileen Kent said: “Billie came flying
round with an umbrella in her hands. My daughter came out and said, ‘You
can’t come here calling my mother a slag. My mother should not be abused
by two young girls and by a mother as well’.” Pensioner Pauline Meanwell,
who walks with a stick, told an earlier hearing: “The filth, rubbish, cruelty
to pets, loud music, criminal damage, threats, harassment and abuse to
police and fire services, have blighted my life since the day I moved in, in
1999.” Mrs Meanwell, who used to lend the family money and give them
presents for their babies, added: “We don’t talk to other people in the street
now because we are scared of the repercussions. We just go into our own
houses and if we want to talk it has to be on the phone. We shouldn’t have
to live like that in our own homes.”

Housing Association East Homes, sought the orders after receiving repeated complaintsfrom residents, who enlisted the help of local MP Angela Watkinson. But many of the neighbours were too terrified to give evidence against the family for fear of reprisals. Paul Clarke, who was handling the matter for East Homes, told the earlier hearing how maintenance staff needed a police escort to attend the house. Weedon claimed she has split up with Giggins, and says he has moved to Bournemouth.

Devastated garden of a house at Dagnam Park Drive, Harold Hill, Romford, Essex, caused by a whole family of anti-social neighbours - since evicted

UPDATE: Jubilant neighbours were celebrating, after a judge gave the go ahead to evict a family of louts who had waged a five-year campaign of terror and violence against them. Benefits scroungers Stacey Weedon, 36, and her layabout boyfriend Leslie Giggins, will have seven days to quit the terrace house they turned into a slum. Weedon’s daughters Charlie, 16, and Billie, 15, who both have children of their own, are also being forced out.

The ruling comes just two days after the foul-mouthed family were named and shamed by a court for making their neighbours’ lives a living hell. They were blamed for a catalogue of vandalism and abuse. Broken furniture, old TV sets and discarded toys were among the rubbish piled in their backgarden. The family, who have all been made the subject of Anti Social Behaviour Orders, were finally brought to justice, after two terrified women victims decided enough was enough, and made a public stand against them. Disabled grandmother Pauline Meanwell, 56, was so terrified that she was forced to hire her own team of security guards. They stay overnight to protect her property next door to the Weedons in Harold Hill, near Romford, Essex. Divorcee Mrs Meanwell, who walks with the aid of a stick,has also installed CCTV cameras outside her home. Mother-of-three Sarah Kent fled in terror seven months ago and has not been able to return to her home since. It followed a terrifying attack when Mrs Weedon and her daughters kicked in her front door.

The women battered Ms Kent, 31, with household objects, as she clutched her petrified five-year-old son to her chest. The three women later ambushed members of Ms Kent’s family at their clothing shop in Romford’s indoor market. During the assault, Billie Weedon, who was seven months pregnant at the time, attacked Ms Kent’s 26-year-old sister Louise with an umbrella. The neighbours were at Romford County Court, where a bid by the Weedons to be allowed to remain in their property was thrown out. After the hearing, delighted Mrs Meanwell said: “It’s fantastic. I am looking forward to living in peace and quiet for the first time in years. I won’t have to be always looking over my shoulder and wondering when I’m next going to come under attack. I don’t like to see people being thrown on to the streets, but they had a lovely home which they have destroyed. They don’t deserve to live in a place like that.”Ms Kent, who has been staying with her parents, said: “They truly are the family from hell. Nobody should have to put up with them. Until now they’ve just been laughing about all this. They were the ones causing all the problems, but they were still sitting there in their house with all their kids,