A retired academic is facing jail for making her neighbour's life a misery for 26 years - after they fell out over her playing Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' too loudly.
Dr Elizabeth Hall, 74, was hauled before a court charged with harassment after a bitter dispute stretching back decades with Christine Penny, 73, turned ugly.
The pensioner claims the row first broke out when Mrs Penny began belting out the 1968 Sinatra hit from her home at Melville Hall, in leafy Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Since then the pair have been at loggerheads with accusations of flooding property and throwing dog food through a letter box
Hall is accused of bombarding former hotel owner Mrs Penny with 52 emails in just a six week period, which led to her starting to take anti-depressants.
Today (Mon) she appeared at Birmingham Crown Court for sentencing after she previously pleaded guilty to harassment and breaching a restraining order.
However the case was adjourned for another month after Hall failed to co-operate with the Probation Service and claimed she would be appealing the convictions.
Representing herself, Hall, who entered court in a wheelchair, told the ten minute hearing she didn’t have enough money to afford a lawyer and would rather go to prison.
She said: “I haven’t got lawyers and it’s a very complex case but I just can’t afford to pay somebody to come to court for possibly 10 minutes.
“I don’t have the funds and I don’t qualify for legal aid so I’m afraid I will just have to fight my way through it.
“I am entitled to defend myself.
“The probation service never rang me and didn’t contact me and I don’t want to be subjected to probation.
“But I was told this was the point to appeal after this hearing and the magistrates. I shall be appealing and I want to appeal against everything.
“I am however quite prepared to talk to probation but I don’t wish to accept probation as part of any sentence but they did not phone me.
"I've been described as a neighbour from hell, that is what I'm dealing with."
Judge Roderick Henderson agreed to adjourn the case and said: “I’m going to adjourn the case for a month.
"I'm going to direct the prosecution to confirm whether there has been any allegations of further trouble since May last year.
“As that will make a very big difference in terms of sentencing if there’s not been any trouble for a year. This will need to be gone into in any event.
“If you are going to appeal against these convictions you must do the paperwork straight away.
“You are already out of time as the limit is three weeks.
“I can tell you for sure if you’re back next month without the paperwork or permission to appeal a judge will carry on with sentencing.”
Hall, a doctor of science who was once accused by the BBC of helping students cheat, has lived in her flat for 26 years.
She shares the property with friend Jane Jones who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has continually protested her innocence.
