A NURSE was harassed for a year by her neighbour who used loud singing, chanting and praying as "psychological tools to torture and torment".

Gloria Odigie (45) recorded her next door neighbour and shouted at her in her garden.

Her lawyer claimed Odigie, who has two sons with sickle cell disease, is a devout Christian and was simply praying and chanting for them to get better.

Imposing a six-month suspended sentence, Judge David McHugh said Odigie had "tortured and tormented her neighbour at quite an extraordinary level".

Odigie, of Liffey Rise in Lucan, was found guilty before Blanchardstown District Court of harassing the woman between October 1, 2012 and November 30, 2013.

The victim, a nurse with two young children, said Odigie would play music or chant loudly when she was in the house.

She would also cough, laugh and spit in a way which the woman found intimidating.

She further claimed Odigie screamed at her, videotaped her family, "smiled evilly" at her and continually "made her presence felt".

In cross examination, the victim said the laughing, chanting and praying only got loud when Odigie saw her at the house.

The harassment got so bad she and her family were forced to leave the house, she claimed.

The victim's husband, a garda, said Odigie videotaped them and subjected them to general verbal abuse and "religious singing".

He also said that if they were in the garden Odigie would watch them from a window.

The defendant did not go into evidence in the case.

Her lawyer denied that Odigie harassed her neighbours, claiming it was simply "two families who didn't get on".

Online Editors