Neighbour from hell jailed over violent attack and vile abuse hurled at couple during campaign of harassment in West Yorkshire street

A man subjected his neighbours to a 'thoroughly disgusting' nine-month campaign of harassment including a violent attack and mocking them over a bereavement.
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Michael Boswell was locked up for 32 months over the abuse suffered by a couple living opposite his home in Castleford.

Leeds Crown Court heard Boswell, 44, carried out the offending between May 2017 and February of this year.

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Michael Boswell.Michael Boswell.
Michael Boswell.

Boswell targeted the man and woman at their home in Cumberland Road on multiple occasions.

Gareth Henderson-Moore, prosecuting, said Boswell punched the man in the face, knocking out two of his teeth.

He also taunted him over the death of his wife who had died from cancer four years earlier.

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Boswell also shined a powerful light from his home into the their bedroom so they struggled to sleep at night.

The prosecutor said Boswell also accused the man of being a paedophile in front of neighbours.

On another occasion he caused damage to his car.

The couple kept a diary and recorded 63 occasions when they suffered abuse by Boswell.

Father-of-eight Boswell also threatened the couple when they sat outside Leeds Magistrates’ Court waiting to give evidence against him at a trial.

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Boswell, now of Fryston Road, Castleford, pleaded guilty to two offences of harassment.

Nicholas Hammond, mitigating, said Boswell had lived in the street for around 15 years but began the offences after a dispute with his neighbours in 2017.

He added: “These things do not happen in a vacuum.”

Sentencing Boswell, Recorder Greame Cook said: “(The victims) suffered greatly at your hands. This is thoroughly disgusting behaviour.”

Boswell was also made the subject of a restraining order banning him from approaching the couple’s home.