Prisoner

I know I am sat on a comfortable sofa, that I have a wonderful home and a magical family, but right now I am trapped, by fear and anxiety.

Blippers who have been with me for a while will know of our occasional troubles with the "adult" son of our next door neighbours. 3 years ago, he took advantage of his parents going away and partied till 4am, keeping all of us awake and causing a lot of stress, particularly when he was verbally abusive when Corin spoke to him about it.

Then we had to deal with the fallout of a serious crime against his family, which was as a result of his criminal associations. His father was attacked, his front door kicked in, and there was a serious stabbing. The fallout included some vile abuse directed at me personally, and us leaving the house for the evening just to get me calm enough to be able to think rationally.

Then 2 summers ago, he partied again, waking us all, keeping us going till 7 in the morning, 2 hours before we had to leave for what ended up being an aborted holiday.

It's infrequent, but when it happens, my stress levels go through the roof, because not only are we disturbed, and have to listen to him and his vile friends causing a nuisance, but I then wonder whether the next night will bring the same.

Friday night it happened again, but thankfully it stopped around half past midnight. I allowed a little glimmer of hope that, although he had disturbed us, maybe he had developed a sense of responsibility and consideration...and if that was going to be the worst of it, I could cope with that.

Saturday night was quiet. He went to Creamfields. That's fine.

Last night.

Well, it started at 11pm...loud rave music that could be heard over our tv. In James bedroom, despite soundproofing, it sounded like the people and the stereo were actually in Jimbos room. It continued till 12.30 again. I was annoyed and James couldn't get to sleep, but I figured we could sleep in, so we watched the Foo Fighters on the telly and went to bed.

At 4.15 this morning, I was woken by a pack of hooligans walking down our street, chanting and shouting, and I just knew. A couple of minutes later, slamming doors, screaming and shouting and the inevitable loud music....James then woke, he and I tried to sleep in our back bedroom, but we could still hear it. The only thing I am grateful for is that Corin didn't wake up, as he had to work today.

The music stopped around 6 this morning, then the noise of doors slamming, bottles being thrown in the bin and basically enough disruption to keep me awake till 6.30 this morning.

So now, I am shattered.

Anxious because we don't know if it will happen again tonight, because we dont know how long his folks are away for.

Anxious because I need to sleep so I can have my head clear for my hospital appointment tomorrow.

Anxious because I really need to figure out how I speak to his parents about it without upsetting them and without then causing problems for us, because he is a bad boy. He is a time served hard boy who really doesn't seem to give a toss about anyone except himself. I confess I am terrified of him, because I know what his background is. I know who he associates with. I am scared of repercussions, particularly if we report it, because we are the only ones affected by it because it is a problem of adjoining properties. He doesn't disturb the neighbours, and on the one occasion where he absolutely must have done, everyone clammed up and didn't say anything, just like us.

Oh, and he isn't a teenager...he is 30 years old.

I hope that karma does exist, because that seems to me the only way that he might get what he deserves, because I am too scared to tackle it.

I hope that anyone who reads this understands how it feels to be on the receiving end of anti-social behaviour, particularly when as 'victims' we are concerned for our own welfare so choose not to report it. Seems little point when our local police force website states that they don't usually respond immediately to calls about noise nuisance as the incident has usually passed by the time they get there. Our local council needs evidence of frequent, not intermittent, disturbances to take a noise nuisance complaint forward.

My home is not my castle right now, it's my prison. Oh for a detached house with no direct neighbours!