An engaged dad believes his neighbour has a vendetta against him because he spurned her advances – even catching her on camera screaming that he’s a ‘bald cellulite-ridden small-testicled w****r’.
Matthew Grist says he’d tried to be friendly by lending his hammer to the lady moving in next door in Maidstone, Kent, but realised she had a crush on him when she wrote on Facebook that she’d ‘date him if he was single’.
The 38-year-old says his neighbour mistakenly believed ‘he fancied her too’ and began asking for guitar lessons, then even turned up at his door with a bottle of whisky after quizzing him on his favourite tipple.
However after he failed to reciprocate her advances, parents-of-three Mr Grist and fiancee Zoe Broster claim she began terrorising them with barrages of abuse through their walls and over their garden fence.
Matthew Grist, pictured, says his neighbour was initially friendly after she moved in next door to their house in Maidstone, Kent, last summer
In footage Mr Grist posted to Twitter, the scorned ‘neighbour from hell’ can be heard bizarrely shouting ‘you go to my garden and beg to see me. I don’t fancy you’, through the semi-detached home’s wall.
She then launches into a foul-mouthed rant about the pair 27-year-old Zoe and Matthew, labelling 27-year-old Ms Broster a ‘jealous sl*t’ and Mr Grist a ‘bald cellulite-ridden small-testicled w****r’.
The middle-aged woman declares ‘everyone hates you’ and the parents ‘don’t deserve children’, as the victims laugh nervously.
Mr Grist believes she could have turned angry because he doesn’t fancy her and claims he’s sick of seeing his wife in tears or having to explain the ‘disturbing’ abuse to their young kids.
The ordeal has left him ‘scared to stand in his own garden’ and has even sped up their decision to move home while forcing them to consider applying for a restraining order.
The pair contacted Kent Police last month, but they claim they feel ‘let down’ as nobody has visited their neighbour to warn her about her abusive behaviour.
Despite Mr Grist’s footage capturing the abuse, Kent Police confirmed there was ‘insufficient evidence of a criminal offence’ and said he would have to report further incidents for it to be classed as harassment.
Mr Grist says the issue is taking its toll on his family. He is pictured here with fiancee Zoe Broster and his children, 11-year-old Katie (right), 10-year-old James (left) and seven-year-old Thomas (centre)
Pictured is the wall that Mr Grist says his neighbour regularly shouts abuse through. Video shows her shouting abusive and foul-mouthed language at the couple
Mr Grist said: ‘Maybe she’s not happy that I’m not interested in her. This has to stop, because I’ve had enough. We shouldn’t be scared to live in our own house.
‘She’s hugely unpredictable. I sent a video to my friend who’s into heavy death metal and he said most bands would pay to be able to shout ‘w****rs’ like she does.
‘We make light of it, but it’s not funny. It upsets Zoe and it’s quite unnerving because you question what she’s going to do next.
‘I’m almost sleeping with one eye open. It’s so unnerving.
‘She’s very keen to push the assertion that she’s no way interested in me, which is a bit surprising because I don’t think that was ever a suggestion anyway. Doth protest too much, as they say.
‘Her general demeanour [made me think she fancies me]. She used to be very eccentric and cordial, but then she just woke up and hated us.
‘You’re scared to go into your garden because you think she’s going to come out or there’s going to be some sort of hassle. She sits there in the rain at times, just to make snide comments at you.
‘The kids know not to interact with her. They say she’s rude, and they know not to repeat what she says. We dress it up to say she’s not very well.
‘I’m fiercely protective of my children. I just want them to be able to play in the garden without someone accosting them and shouting things.
‘I can’t work out which insults are towards me and which are to Zoe, but most of the fat comments are at Zoe and the bald comments are about me. It’s horrible.
‘I don’t know how she knows I’ve got small balls, but I’d like to fully deny that, on the record!’
Mr Grist says the family have contacted Kent Police, but it has responded by saying ‘the points to prove for criminal offence have not occurred’. Pictured is the letter sent by Kent Police to the family
The 38-year-old has complained about the abuse, but says he is disappointed that Kent Police have not spoken to his neighbour to tell her to stop
Mr Grist says he first thought the woman was ‘strange’ when she burned all her garden fences behind her house shortly after moving in in April last year.
Then the dad-of-three claims he spotted a Facebook post from his nightmare neighbour claiming she’d ‘happily date him if he was single’ after he’d lent her his hammer.
Her ‘cordial’ advances in the weeks after gave him and Zoe the impression she’d ‘taken a shine to him’ and they joked about it until she ‘turned’ in summer 2021 and became abusive.
Mr Grist, whose three children are Katie, 11, James, 10, and Thomas, seven, says the first incident came when the woman was ‘dancing around her garden’ while shouting ‘Zoe’s a fat cow’.
He claims the woman, who is believed to own her house, throws garden waste and even chicken bones into the garden, which are dangerous for their dog.
‘We felt she took a shine to me and I think she thought that I fancied her,’ he said.
‘She was learning the guitar and I play, so she’d knock on my door guitar-in-hand, saying ‘can you just show me this?’. It was a bit odd but nice.
‘When I helped her with her fences, she asked me what I drink. I mentioned whisky and she turned up with a bottle of it. She said she’d have to try it, took the glass out of my hand, and necked it.
‘It’ll be the last time I do my neighbours a favour. I don’t quite know what changed her mind about me.
‘We just would really like the police to tell her to pack it in. We just don’t want her to shout abuse through our walls all of the time and do very strange things.’
The couple contacted the police about the abuse last month and received a letter on January 16 telling him ‘the points to prove for a criminal offence have not occured’.
It says they would only be able to record it as a crime ‘if other incidents happen’, as that would amount to harassment.
Mr Grist claims he’s complained to the police about their inactivity.
The family plan to move house within the next few months and Mr Grist admits he feels sorry for the next tenants in case she ‘takes a dislike to them too’.
A Kent Police spokesperson said: ‘Kent Police was called on 16 January 2022 by a resident in Maidstone who reported they had heard offensive language coming from a neighbouring property.
‘Officers contacted the informant and it was identified there was insufficient evidence of a criminal offence.
‘They were also advised any further incidents could amount to harassment and should be reported. No further reports have been received by Kent Police at this stage.’
Mr Grist’s neighbour was contacted for comment but failed to respond.
