A pensioner who says local children made his life 'hell' put anti-vandal paint on his garden fence to stop them climbing on it and throwing stones at his windows.

Robert Brown also reported the youngsters to police and was delighted when officers came round to speak to him.

He assumed it was to take details of his plight – and was shocked to learn he was being prosecuted for criminal damage because the children had got the paint over their clothes.

Their mother alleged that almost £4,000 worth of furniture and carpets had been ruined by the youngsters treading the paint, which does not dry and leaves surfaces slippery, into her house.

Robert Brown, 76, (pictured) says children made his life 'hell' so put anti-vandal paint on his garden fence

Unemployed mother-of-six Judith Ripley-Aitchison complained about the vandal paint and said 'kids are kids'

Retired security guard Mr Brown, 76, was hauled to court three times and threatened with a criminal record in a nine-month ordeal as he fought the case which cost around £10,000 of taxpayers' cash.

It was dropped on the day it was due to go to trial last month. Last night Mr Brown, a divorced father of one, criticised the police and Crown Prosecution Service.

'We are always hearing that the police don't have enough funds, but how much money has been wasted chasing a prosecution like this?' he said.

'I'd had months of harassment, of these children making my life hell, and decided to do something about it. An Englishman's home is still his castle and I was just protecting the home where I've lived for 50 years.'

Mr Brown said: 'An Englishman's home is still his castle and I was protecting the home I've lived for 50 years'

Mr Brown's ordeal began last March when he says he caught several children, who live in a council house behind his property in Hindley Green, near Wigan, throwing stones at his windows after using his fence to climb on to the roof of a council outhouse overlooking his back garden.

He bought some anti-vandal, or anti-climb, paint and put it in two-inch wide strips across the top edge of his fence and the outhouse roof, and warned the youngsters not to touch it.

Police visited him after their mother, Judith Ripley-Aitchison, 44, complained that her children had traipsed through her home covered in the paint, causing £3,750 worth of damage.

She denied Mr Brown had warned the youngsters about the paint or that they had climbed on to the roof and fence to get it on their clothes, saying it had 'dripped on to them'.

Mr Brown was charged with criminal damage and asked to go to Leigh police station to accept a caution, but refused. Instead he fought the case which was thrown out after prosecutors admitted there was 'no realistic prospect of conviction'.

Mrs Ripley-Aitchison said her children had gone through her home in paint, causing £3,750 worth of damage

Last night unemployed Mrs Ripley-Aitchison, a single mother-of-six, denied her children made Mr Brown's life a misery.

'I had four children running inside covered, it [the paint] went on the carpets, on curtains, everywhere,' said Mrs Ripley-Aitchison, whose children are educated at home.

'They thought they had found some kind of black mud, they were playing with it.

'The kids may have thrown a ball and a hula hoop over once, but kids are kids. He [Mr Brown] is the type who would complain if a bird pooed in his garden.'

The Crown Prosecution Service said it had offered no evidence after a review on the day of the proposed trial.

Sergeant Dave Clarke, of Greater Manchester police, said the case was part of a 'much bigger' neighbour issue and they had a duty to investigate Mrs Ripley-Aitchison's complaint.