Didcot neighbour from hell claimed to have access to shotgun

Roy Willis, 40, was said to have been suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis when he embarked on a campaign of unpleasant harassment towards his neighbours in Ivy Close, Didcot.

The couple had been so concerned by the behaviour of the man, who was subject to a restraining order banning him from speaking to them, that they had installed cameras, raised the height of their fences and put in window coverings preventing Willis from seeing into their home.

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One of the women was so affected by his relentless threats that she contemplated taking her own life, Oxford Crown Court heard. In a victim personal statement, she said: “He terrifies the life out of me.”

She was in the garden at the end of May when she heard the defendant muttering about an ‘invasion of privacy’ before, more worryingly, he made threats about what would happen if the police did not ‘back him up’.

She had a ‘pretty high chance of being killed’, he said. Willis made bizarre references to ‘nonces’, used vile insults against the woman and claimed he was ‘exercising his right to freedom of speech’.

A few weeks later, both women were in the garden on June 13, when he claimed to have access to firearms in his loft – and also threatened to be able to summon support from acquaintances and ‘see what they are armed with’.

"If you want to see a gun just ask and I'll go into my loft," he told the women, claiming that he had an air rifle and 12-bore shotgun. 

He used homophobic slang. Willis, who is Caucasian, also made offensive references to the women’s ‘white’ skin colour as part of his stream of verbal abuse.

The second of the two victims, a paramedic, said she had had to inform her employers about the abuse she was suffering from her neighbour after fears that he might turn up at the ambulance station.

Willis, of Ivy Close, Didcot, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to harassment putting a person in fear of violence and two counts of breaching restraining orders.

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Defending, Bethan Chichester said her client had been suffering from ‘quite significant paranoia’ at the time of the offending, as a consequence of cannabis-induced psychosis. He had been diagnosed with autism, while he also had attention deficit disorder.

The barrister characterised Willis’ comments as the ‘ramblings of someone who’s not in his right mind’. He accepted what he did was wrong and wanted to apologise to his victims, she said.

The defendant had been given an ultimatum by his partner that either he would have to give up cannabis or she would give up on their relationship.

She said Willis had done the equivalent of a seven month prison sentence on remand.

Imposing a 14 month suspended prison sentence, Recorder John Bate-Williams said: “At first sight, this case has all the hallmarks of an immediate custodial sentence being necessary because all the offences are so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified.

“However, a very different complexion is put on the case as a consequence of the psychiatric report.”

He must do 120 hours of unpaid work and complete a thinking skills programme and rehabilitation sessions with the probation service.

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