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A Chinese mother and her solicitor daughter “terrorised” their neighbours in a campaign of harassment by playing loud music on a loop and banging paint cans.
Susan Chen, 61, and Linda Lu, 35, were each jailed for five-and-a-half years after being convicted of causing serious alarm or distress to their neighbours, James and Lynn Smith, in the village of Bassingham, UK.
Chen and Lu used binoculars to spy on the couple, shone torches at their home for hours, took photographs of them and shouted abuse.
The Smiths, who have two young children and are both teachers, were targeted by the mother and daughter following a disagreement about a hedge in July 2023, jurors heard.
Mr Smith had tried to trim the front hedge separating his property from the one rented by Chen but his neighbours, who had only moved in three months before, objected.
Passing sentence at Lincoln Crown Court, Judge James House KC said events took an “unexpected and sinister turn” following the incident.
“Mr Smith went out and had only been cutting for 30 seconds when he became aware of Ms Chen shouting,” Judge House explained.
He said the couple were subjected to a “persistent, calculated and appalling” pattern of behavior that lasted more than two months.
Videos recorded by Mr Smith, which were played in court, showed Chen and Lu “shouting derogatory abuse”, including the use of terms such as “retards”.
Footage and audio were also shown of the “loud metallic banging” of paint cans and the repeated playing of music including the “laughing policeman”.
On another occasion, CCTV showed Chen and Lu shining torches at the house for two hours during the night.
Linda Lu
Chen and Lu also used a mobile phone linked to a camera to know when the Smith family were outside. Binoculars were used to spy on the family.
Judge House said Mr Smith was forced to submit around 200 audio and video recordings to police while Chen and Lu simply ignored community protection notices which were served on them.
“In short the defendants terrorised the Smith family,” Judge House concluded.
Representing themselves during their five-week trial, Chen and Lu alleged that they were the ones being “stalked and harassed”.
A jury took just two hours to convict both women of stalking Mr and Mrs Smith between July 15 and September 29 2023.
Both defendants declined the offer of a psychiatric assessment before the sentencing hearing.
The jury heard Lu had no previous convictions but Chen was previously convicted of assaulting an elderly couple while living in the village of Balderton, near Newark, Notts, in 2020.
This involved Chen spitting and “setting about” the elderly couple with her walking pole after coming across them on her daily exercise.
Lu, who previously worked for a number of London based law firms and owns a property in the capital, complained that her future job prospects would be impacted by the conviction.
Lu also claimed there was no evidence of daily harassment and said much of the CCTV was random and contained private conversations taken from her home.
Susan Chen
Victim impact statements from the Smiths’ were read out during the sentencing hearing.
Mrs Smith said her life had changed dramatically since the events of 2023 as a result of the campaign of harassment from Chen and Lu.
The mother-of-two revealed she now suffered from insomnia and had also been diagnosed with mild depression and anxiety.
The couple’s two children were also impacted, Mrs Smith said, with their eldest child being reluctant to go to sleep alone and both children using their garden less.
In his statement, Mr Smith described how the family’s 13-year stay in a village they loved was shattered by the arrival of Chen and Lou.
Mr Smith said the harassment was calculated and continued on an almost daily basis.
He said that Lu, a qualified solicitor, used her legal training to intimidate his family.
The two defendants had denied a single charge of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.
After sentencing them to five and a half years each, Judge House also made two restraining orders which prevent Lu and Chen entering Bassingham, having any contact with the Smith family and a number of other people involved in the case.
Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk
