Woman, 37, who put a screen in front of her neighbour’s window and played ‘deafening’ music after her application to open dog kennels next door was refused is spared jail
- Rhiannon Alexa Binyon was given a 12-week sentence, suspended for one year
- Binyon, 37, from Anglesey also played fake-barking sounds as part of harassment
- Neighbour Prydwen Maclean, 76, said she felt ‘depressed’ when screen put up
- David Brooks, 74, said ‘our world was turned upside down’ when she moved in
A woman who played ‘deafening’ music and fake-barking sounds to annoy her neighbours after her application to open dog kennels next door was refused has been spared jail.
Rhiannon Alexa Binyon – from Llanfair-yn-Neubwll, near Holyhead in Anglesey – also put up a screen across her neighbour’s bedroom window as part of her tirade which began at the beginning of last year.
Binyon, 37, received a 12-week jail term, suspended for a year and must also undertake 150 hours unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity.
Rhiannon Alexa Binyon played ‘deafening’ music and fake-barking sounds to annoy her neighbours after her application to open dog kennels next door was refused
Binyon was convicted of harassing two neighbours, one of whom worked at the Cymyran Hotel.
Hotelier Prydwen Maclean, 76, told magistrates at Caernarfon Crown Court: ‘On numerous occasions I have had guests complaining about the noise coming from Baron Hill, mostly about the dogs barking and loud radio playing and noise from machinery.’
Mrs Maclean’s husband died in December 2018, a couple of months before the harassment began.
Binyon was convicted of harassing two neighbours, one of whom worked at the Cymyran Hotel
She said the barking came from both a machine and real dogs and plastic had also been burned.
Mrs Maclean – who’d lived at her rural home for 40 years- said she felt ‘miserable and depressed’ when the screen was put up outside her window, leaving her only able to open it by eight inches.
She said: ‘Many of my guests and bar customers have complained about endless noise of dogs and machinery and smell of smoke.
‘The value of my hotel has depreciated.’
Mrs Maclean added: ‘I don’t feel safe in my own home. It’s time she realised I was entitled to not want to have kennels next door to my hotel.’
Another neighbour David Brooks, 74, a former South African air force pilot, told the court that when Binyon moved in to the once peaceful neighbourhood ‘our world was turned upside down.’
His voice breaking with emotion, the villager said : ‘At the height of the abuse we were being targeted 24 hours a day.’
He and his wife Dot, 75, had been ‘driven out of our own beloved garden’ by a ‘vindictive’ woman and they didn’t feel safe in their home.
He said: ‘I am begging for one simple thing. I want Miss Binyon to be forced to face the reality of her unacceptable behaviour.’
Binyon told a probation officer she fed ducks and the dog sounds were to scare away other birds because RAF Valley’s runway was nearby.
The former animal management college lecturer had moved to the property in 2017 to start a business and now ran a cattery.
Patrick Geddes, defending, said numerous allegations were made against Binyon but not all were proved.
Another neighbour David Brooks, 74, a former South African air force pilot, told Caernarfon Crown Court that when Binyon moved in to the once peaceful neighbourhood ‘our world was turned upside down’
Fires, lights and general dog barking weren’t seen as harassment and Mr Geddes said the recorded noises were, in part, used to scare away birds.
He said Binyon cared for elderly family members and said: ‘For the moment Miss Binyon will remain where she is.’
Magistrates’ chairman Alwyn Lloyd Ellis told her: ‘Your actions over a prolonged period caused considerable distress to Mr Brooks and Mrs Maclean.
‘There was no reason whatsoever for you to harass your neighbours in this way. To this day you haven’t taken responsibility, minimising your actions and blaming your victims.’
Binyon must pay £755 costs. A restraining order, to last indefinitely, bans contact with her neighbours and prohibits her from having the barrier in front of the window.
Prosecutor Diane Williams said, if it remained, that would be further harassment.