Some are taking antidepressants. Others developed heart problems. One was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ralph Scala's neighbours described yesterday how his unrelenting campaign of harassment and intimidation turned their once tranquil Junction neighbourhood into a living hell.

"I have endured anxiety, countless sleepless nights and extreme trauma as I continually worried about my family's safety," said Maria Bolotta, whose widowed 87-year-old mother lives in a semi-detached house on Quebec Ave., adjoining the one occupied by Scala's family.

"In the middle of the night I would get calls from my mother crying that she was startled from her sleep by loud bangs behind her bed," said Bolotta as she read her victim impact statement

"I had to go and calm her down when she found her property littered with dog refuse, dead squirrels, cats, mice and even a skunk deliberately left behind to frighten her," Bolotta told Scala's sentencing hearing.

"It became impossible for me to spend quality time with her or to enjoy her property with her because of the horrible skeletons, fake camera, pitchforks, and tombs bearing her name that we had to face when we went outside."

Bolotta's daughter bore the brunt of Scala's hatred, she said. She suffers from anxiety and phobias – and has dropped out of university – after being involved in two court cases against Scala and his father.

After Scala, 36, and Felice Scala, 62, were arrested last July the neighbourhood had a street party to celebrate, she said.

It was the end of years of slashed tires, broken windows and threats, many carried out by local youths paid by Ralph Scala.

Felice Scala was arrested yesterday in the courthouse, where he was attending his son's hearing, and charged with criminal harassment and breaching his bail after he was seen riding a bus in his neighbourhood the day before. He is to have a bail hearing today.

His trial, on four charges related to his son's, starts in June.

Yesterday, Justice Kathleen Caldwell sentenced Ralph Scala to the eight months, 17 days he has served already, crediting him for time served at the rate of two for one.

He was to be released from the Don Jail last night, said his lawyer, Gordon Goldman.

The judge put Scala on probation for three years, ordering him to stay away from an area bounded by Bloor St., St. Clair Ave. W., Lansdowne Ave. and Jane St.

She ordered him to get counselling, pay restitution to the victims and perform 200 hours of community service.

Scala has to stay away from at least 26 people.

"You have terrorized your neighbours over many months, if not years," she said.

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Scala made a muffled apology for his crimes, but Caldwell said she could not tell if it was genuine. She did, however, credit him for pleading guilty to 49 charges, including mischief, criminal harassment and threatening, some of which would have been hard for the Crown to prove.

Caldwell said that in her 20 years in the criminal justice system, she has seen many neighbour disputes. "But I have never seen one approaching this magnitude."

In Bolotta's victim-impact statement, she said she nearly suffered a serous injury cutting her mother's grass when she discovered 22 sharpened bicycle spokes embedded in the lawn.

"They were designed to be picked up by the lawn mower and to fly out and harm anyone who happened to be in their path."

Karen Hoffman told the court she was robbed of the joy of being a new mother by her neighbour's threatening behaviour. "On top of losing my appetite for months, I also lost sleep." The family's car tires were slashed five times in three months.

Ruth Yeoman told the judge she was afraid to walk anywhere in her Junction neighbourhood.

"I had the summer from hell. My doctor diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder and prescribed medicine for sleep. I'm still taking it."

After the sentencing, Yeoman said she was glad the justice system took the crime seriously and that the judge warned Scala if he steps over the line just once he will "be treated like the criminal he is."

Bolotta said the result doesn't make up for the anxiety the victims suffered, but it was just.

She is still apprehensive, she added, about what will happen when Scala's probation order barring him from the neighbourhood expires in three years.