A nightmare neighbour said he and his partner had done 'nothing unneighbourly' despite shocking audio recordings of them making death threats.

The ordeal suffered by Mark and Elaine Burrows from Betteshanger near Deal was exposed in 5STAR's Nightmare Neighbour Next Door last night

The couple who filmed the show in October bared all about their three years of hell in which they were subjected to constant verbal abuse from their jobless neighbour Jimmy Sinclair.

Life in Circular Road had been idyllic for them for more than 25 years until their next door neighbour Gary Norris moved his new partner Jimmy - who came with an alter ego Lilly La Rue - in.

Mrs Burrows said it soon became like a 'horror movie' being told they were 'dead, dead, dead' through the walls of their semi-detached property.

They were forced to keep a diary of events, buy dictaphones and install CCTV to record the regular early-hour abuse.

And they weren't the only ones claimed to have been affected with the show's narrator stating the 'entire neighbourhood lived in fear'.

Liz Paynne shared how she felt like a 'prisoner' after she and her husband Kevin had been accosted in the street and accused of an acid attack.

Mrs Burrows said: "I didn't want to live. Some days I didn't want to wake up. I'd had enough. I was exhausted."

Sinclair, who was convicted of harassment in November 2018 and handed a five-year restraining order, prohibiting him from both direct and indirect communication with the family, did not appear in the show but denied the claims.

His partner Mr Norris, who was found not guilty of the same charge but given the same restraining order, did take part and claimed that they were the victims of homophobia.

Initially he only allowed his voice to be used but agreed to go on camera at the end of the programme to demonstrate how their lives had been affected by the neighbour's constant CCTV surveillance.

He told the show: "Me and Jimmy since returning here have done nothing unneighbourly, or disrespectful to justify any of this.

"I have been the victim right form the start. They have run out of ridiculous claims."

The Burrows family spoke to KentOnline about their ordeal days after Sinclair's conviction in November 2018.

Mrs Burrows said 'the vendetta' began in December 2016 after she stopped answering the daily knocks on the door from Sinclair and turned down the offer to attend one of his drag act events.

They installed sound proofing boards in the walls and floor of both their living room and son's bedroom to try and drown out the noise.

But the sleepless nights that followed put a strain on the couple's marriage, prompting Mrs Burrows to take anti-depressants for the first time in her life.They also contemplated a divorce.

Mrs Burrows said at the time: "Good people get destroyed by things like this. If we hadn't have had the support I really think it would have ended us."

Jimmy Sinclair and Gary Norris have now moved.

Mr Burrows, a self employed painted and decorator, said: "It has been lovely and quiet here and the new neighbour seems very nice.

"It has been such a weight lifted to live a normal life again and be able to walk locally and use our garden again."

Nightmare Neighbour Next Door is available to watch on My5.

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