Hydrangea-rage granny caught in the act (From Sutton Guardian)

Cheam neighbours of 87-year-old have felt her rage for 12 years

11:18am Thursday 28th June 2012 in News Exclusive By James Pepper

This is the extraordinary moment when Sutton's rudest granny attacked a handyman with a broom.

Margaret Perry, 87, was sentenced last week for breaching a restraining order which her neighbours had imposed on her after a catalogue of anti-social behaviour.

These pictures were taken on two separate occasions when contractors had come to fix her neighbour's internet cable which Perry had deliberately cut after 'mistaking' it for a water pipe.

A menace to a civilised Cheam society, Perry had already played her part in another neighbour relocating to a different part of the country, but Brian and Marion Kelly refuse to give in to her bullying.

The cable cutting incident in 2010 is only a snippet in a war of attrition Perry has waged against neighbours the Kellys since they moved to Gainsborough Terrace, Cheam, in 1999.

Mr Kelly has kept a diary documenting incidents involving Perry which range from the theft of plant pots to racist abuse.

Last week, Perry was given a six month community order and ordered to pay £75 in costs by Croydon Crown Court after breaching a restraining order. Mr Kelly, who had to spend £500 on CCTV on the instruction of the CPS, said the sentence was "unbelievable" and was "further abuse on behalf of Mrs Perry by the CPS".

"The CPS have not taken this case seriously at all. She has been taken away by police and cautioned in the past, but she continues her racist abuse. She has not even been punished. This is a race hate crime and she has got off scott free."

Mr Kelly said he had lost count of the times Perry had told him and his wife to "get back to your own country".

He said: "We do not know what her boundaries are, or what she will do next, but I doubt this is the end of it."

"The CPS has shown no empathy at all for us, the victims."

Mr Kelly said the new Cheam safer neighbourhood team have been "wonderful", but the judicial system had let them down.

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named said of Perry: " She made my life hell with her harassment, her constant insults, abuse and threats, even telling one of my neighbours she hoped I would die on the operating table. She often reduced me to tears."