'No human being should have to live like this'
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Barbed-wire on surrounding fences, broken bottles on the footpath, children's toys demolished, crushed and burnt...welcome to Terri-Ann Brown's world.
The 23-year-old from Limavady says she will no longer put up with the intimidation, vandalism and disgusting behaviour a gang of drink and drug fuelled youths has been inflicting on her Sperrin Road property for the last 18 months.
Even though the Limavady woman has suffered deplorable verbal abuse, had obscene graffiti sprayed across her windows and resorted to bricking up her attic to prevent vandals entering her home, she says she won't let the young thugs push her out of her home.
“They can't intimidate me. I'm still here after they completely wrecked my house."
Ms Brown cannot even heat her home because mindless thugs have punctured holes in her oil tank and vandalised vital fuel measuring equipment.
“My oil tank was only replaced six months ago and they have already wrecked it. There's no point in me putting oil in the tank because if I do it'll just leak out. That tank is my only means of heating, I don't have a fire, but luckily enough because the weather has been warm things haven't been too bad but what about when the winter comes in?"
The 23-year-old has lived in her Sperrin Road home for five years but says the harrowing experience only began 18 months ago when a group of youths began to hang around the area.
“From the beginning they tormented me, they ripped off my iron gate just to sit in my entry and smoke, then they began to bang on my wall when they were sitting down there. It disturbed my TV aerial and I couldn't watch anything."
The 15 strong group of hooligans, which Terri-Ann describes as ranging in ages from as young as 13 right up to 18, have even ripped off roof tiles and wooden fences to carry out their drink and drug fuelled antics in neighbouring derelict properties.
