"He's just an evil man": Ex-social worker's campaign of 'nasty' harassment against grieving widow over garden shrine to her late husband

A grieving widow was left feeling suicidal by a neighbour who mounted a vindictive hate campaign against her over a shrine she set up in memory of her late husband, a court heard.

A judge blasted 'repeated and targeted' attacks by Anthony Kenyon against church volunteer Margaret Ilkovics, 60, which she said were 'calculated to continuously annoy and upset her'.

Mrs Ilkovics, 60, was subjected to callous smears and vandalism after ex-social worker Kenyon, 52, who lived next door to her in Salford, objected to shrubs, ornaments and a memory box she placed under a tree in a communal garden to pay tribute to her late husband, Richard.

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Kenyon, the court heard, claimed the tribute at Regina Court was a 'health and safety hazard' and was said to have uprooted the three foot high tree, killed off plants with weedkiller and even damaged the ornaments, which included commemorative dolls.

He was also accused of writing poison pen notes claiming Mrs Ilkovics' husband, who died of cancer aged just 54, was 'bogus' and she had only married him for his money.

In 2020 Mrs Ilkovics, a retired clerk, won a two-year restraining order against Kenyon, but the court heard he continued harassing her by putting raw octopus through her letter box, smearing cocoa powder on her door and throwing eggs at her property. He was arrested after she installed a security camera to capture him.

In a statement, she described Kenyon's behaviour as 'mental torture' and said he was preventing her from properly grieving her husband, who passed away in 2018. She also said she had 'seriously'