A GWENT widow is alleged to have six times breached restraining orders protecting her neighbours - allegedly threatening them and damaging their property.

Cardiff crown court heard that Dorothy Evans, 78, deliberately boxed in a tradesman's van parked outside a neighbour's house on one occasion and once made a threatening gesture to another neighbour by drawing her fingers across her throat. Evans, of Park Crescent, Abergavenny, has pleaded not guilty to six charges of breaching restraining orders imposed on her by Cwmbran magistrates in November 1999 compelling her not to be abusive towards Margaret Jones, Peter Kenyon, Julian Edwards, and their respective families.

Prosecutor Peter Davies told the crown court there was an unhappy history between Evans and some neighbours.

The first breach, Mr Davies alleged, was in February last year when Evans drove her car close to a plumber boxing him in.

In April that year, she was alleged to have made a threatening gesture and on the same day, it is claimed, she placed a house-brick on top of a wall near where Edwards' three-year-old son was playing causing him to fear it would fall and cause injuries.

The Edwards and Jones families installed surveillance cameras to record what was going on.

In May last year, said Mr Davies, Margaret Jones had a book case delivered.

When it was taken into the house, Mr Davies told the court that Evans' daughter, at the command of the defendant, obstructed the delivery vehicle, causing upset and annoyance.

In June it was claimed Evans put a spade through a fence belonging to Margaret Jones and dislodged stones surrounding a pond.

"There was no reasonable excuse for that," said Mr Davies. And on July 21, he alleged Evans, while hosing down a pavement, directed water at Mrs Jones' property. Proceeding