ANI
London, Aug 8: A woman whose appalling singing drove her neighbours mad, has been silenced with an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO).
Mother-of-two Caroline Bishop could be sentenced for up to five years if she carries on to make the tuneless "high pitched noise".
Bishop was accused of singing the likes of Gary Glitter's ‘Leader of the Gang’ every morning from her bathroom, in order to bother her neighbours, Alistair and Kerry Law.
"She would sing just to annoy us. I could guarantee I would pull up in my drive and five minutes later she would start singing. It was mostly from her bathroom, which is on the ground floor but she would sing outside as well. Sometimes it was three or four times a week,” the Daily Mail quoted Alistair, as saying in the courtroom.
"It has been hard work living next door to her. We can't sell our house, because people don't want to move here while it's still going on,” Alistair added.
Kerry claimed that there was "clear evidence" that Bishop's singing was a key part of her efforts to irritate her neighbours.
"The singing didn't sound normal to me, it was just a high-pitched noise. She would sing most mornings and during the day. She became very aggressive towards us. At the start of this I was running my own business, but I had to stop. I couldn't deal with it. We never know what we were going to come home to,” Kerry said.
However, Bishop has gone to court to challenge the anti-social behaviour order imposed on her, claiming that the ASBO, which runs for two years, should not have been made against her.
"It was just to jolly them along. I don't think I sang loudly. It was just for five or ten minutes. I sing children's songs and nursery rhymes,” Bishop said.
"I have nowhere to turn. I have stopped singing. My children live in silence now,” she added.
Under the terms of the order Bishop is prohibited from singing or shouting so she can be heard outside her house.
She is also banned from using abusive language or shouting at her neighbours and from causing harassment to the Laws and another family.