A RETIRED businesswoman has been hit with an ASBO after a "campaign of hatred and pure evil" turned her idyllic village into a "hamlet of horrors".

Jeanne Wilding, 57, was accused of being "at war" with at least 15 individuals or organisations in the tiny hamlet of Bottomley, near Todmorden.

Deputy District Judge Sandra Keen granted Calderdale Council an ASBO against her at a hearing before magistrates in Halifax.

Her case, which involves more than 250 alleged incidents in 16 months, was compared to a plot from an Agatha Christie novel by lawyers for the council.

The court heard Wilding's acts of anti-social behaviour included loudly playing an orchestral and choral work about "rape, pillage and the trashing of villages" called Carmina Burana by Carl Orff.

She also caused extensive damage to vehicles in the hamlet, beamed floodlights into her neighbour's home, and tipped oil over her neighbour's drive at night, the court was told.

Wilding deposited rubbish, dog faeces, glass and nails on the road, obstructing other homes and communal spaces, the prosecution said.

She booby-trapped paint pots, and placed dead animals in the gardens of neighbours, the court was told.

James Ward, for the council, said: "Like all hamlets in Agatha's books and the village of Midsomer, something evil arrives and misery descends.

"Bottomley was no exception. In 2002, Jeanne Wilding arrived. From then on, it became the Hamlet of Horrors' and Hamlet from Hell'."

Mr Ward said there was a long-running dispute between residents in the Walsden area which led to families watching each other with banks of surveillance cameras.

One neighbour Nigel Pratt, who lives next door with his wife Penny and their children, said the problems had a huge effect on his 11-year-old son, Edward.

He told the judge: "He's frightened of my wife going out in the yard when Miss Wilding is there. He screams and shouts at her not to go outside."

Deputy District Judge Keen said: "If her views are challenged she responds in a wholly inappropriate manner.

"She takes a confrontational stance, causing others harassment or distress. Her view is there's nothing anti-social in how she behaves.

"Miss Wilding has behaved in a manner that means an order will be necessary to protect people from further anti-social acts from her."

The court heard that in July 2003 Wilding was banned from the Acorn Centre in Todmorden a drop-in activity centre for vulnerable youths after she upset the staff, children and reduced volunteers to tears.

The ASBO bans Wilding pointing her surveillance cameras into her neighbours' homes, obstructing a communal area between the houses and dumping rubbish, including animal corpses, as well as contacting the Pratts or the Cryers.