Compulsive starer faces prison

A compulsive starer will be jailed if he does not stop watching his next-door neighbours. John Hughes, 65, watched and filmed his neighbours – continually staring at them.

He even spied on them through holes he created in a boundary fence and trained a CCTV camera on their property. Flintshire Magistrates Court at Mold heard how he would pretend to cut grass in front of his neighbour’s home at Penyffordd near Mostyn – simply so that he could watch them.



On occasions he would not even turn his strimmer on as he stood there looking at them. Hughes, of Rhewl Fawr Road, denied harassment between March and August of last year, but he was convicted at an earlier trial.

On Thursday Hughes, said to suffer from mental health problems, received a four-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. He was also ordered to stay indoors between 8pm and 8am and pay £500 court costs. A five-year restraining order was made under which he must not approach his neighbours Jonathan and Ruth Hughes or their children.