A couple banned from looking into their neighbour’s home are ‘ecstatic’ after charges of harassment against them were finally dropped.
Nigel and Sheila Jacklin have been embroiled in a bitter 11 year row with their neighbour sparked by ‘noisy’ building work.
The spat in the town of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, saw the couple legally barred from looking into the home of neighbour Dr Stephane Duckett and his partner.
Earlier this year, the couple were accused of ‘chanting, staring and sticking their fingers up’ at their neighbour and his partner from a nearby beach.
The pair were charged with harassment- but claimed the chanting and finger-pointing were part of Sheila’s Hindu prayers routine.
Nigel, 62, was also charged with assaulting a female friend of their neighbours during a separate row outside his £600k home.
However, all charges against the couple were finally dropped yesterday following an appearance at Brighton Magistrates’ Court.
The ruling ended a long dispute between the two which started when the couple first complained about building work at clinical psychiatrist Dr Duckett’s home.
Appearing in court, the Jacklins pleaded not guilty to harassment of their neighbour.
Mr Jacklin also pleaded not guilty to assault, while Mrs Jacklin said the chanting, staring and finger movements were a part of her Sanskrit mantras.
The Crown Prosecution Service requested an adjournment which was refused by the court – meaning no evidence was offered by the prosecution.
The Jacklins were then told they were ‘free to go’.
Speaking outside the courthouse, Mr Jacklin, a statistician and market researcher, said: ‘We are feeling relieved, elated and pissed off.
‘This should never have gone to court.
‘This is the fourth time my wife has been investigated for praying on the beach.
‘We’ve been investigated 12 times with no action taken against us in any case.
‘That’s not a series of police mistakes – that is abuse of police power.”
The row began in 2013 when London-based Dr Duckett and his partner Norinne Betjemann bought a 120-year-old, disused glass glazing workshop opposite the Jacklin’s house and set about converting it into a £400,000 holiday home.
Mr and Mrs Jacklin made a series of complaints about their neighbours to the authorities, including noisy builders, verbal abuse and light pollution.
However the Jacklins were then ‘investigated’ by the Rother District Council and given a ‘community protection warning letter’.
They were also banned from entering an ‘exclusion zone’ around the property owned by Dr Duckett and Ms Betjemann.
The Jacklins reported their neighbours in July 2023 for harassment when they claim Mrs Jacklin was surrounded by her neighbours filming her as she tried to pray.
In September, Mr Jacklin claims he was assaulted after a friend of the Duckett’s approached them on the beach outside their home.
As the couple made their way back to the house, Mr Jacklin said the woman shouted to Mrs Jacklin: ‘The whole village wishes you were dead’.
Mr Jacklin said he was ‘strangled’ by the woman after approaching her, telling the court: ‘The woman then claimed I bashed her against the fence, kicked her dog and repeatedly headbutted her.
‘It was completely made up. When she throttled me, she came at me again and I put my hand out to stop her, that was the only contact we had.’
Mr Jacklin pointed out that the incident was covered by one of his neighbour’s many CCTV cameras, but footage of the three minutes in which the assault took place were never found despite a request by the Jacklins’ solicitors to be produced.
The councillor is now calling for Sussex Police to take action against his neighbours, who he says have harassed them and made false allegations.
The father-of-two said: ‘It is a spectacular misuse of police time. We think it’s probably an abuse of police power.
‘I stood in the general election and one of the reasons I decided to do so is because the police investigated us and not our neighbours. We should stand against abuse of power.
‘My wife’s Hindu faith has helped her get through this. We’ve been there for 30 years and plan to live here forever.’
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