A Folkestone man was so frustrated by a prolonged dispute with a neighbour he told police he planned to put him "six foot under!"!

Furious John Eaton claimed Stephen Parker had damaged his van, urinated against the front door of his home and set off fireworks late at night.

In desperation, Eaton, 63, now of Pavilion Court, told officers he planned to buy petrol and burn down his neighbour’s home, attack him with a hammer or run him over in his car!

Prosecutor Christopher May told Canterbury Crown Court that none of the threats in May last year were made directly to Mr Parker.

“There had been a history between the two of them and the police were called in May about an allegation that Mr Parker had damaged Eaton’s van.

“Eaton told officers he was at the end of his tether and the previous night he had gone to buy some petrol to pour through Mr Parker’s letterbox and he was going to set it alight, “ he added.

Eaton then told officers if he saw Mr Parker while he was driving “he would run him over repeatedly until he was six foot under”.

Police warned him about making the threats but Eaton replied: “I don’t care how many life sentences I get!”

"Eaton said he was feeling murderously angry" - Christopher May

Mr May added: “The way he made these threats meant that crime scene investigators took them seriously and his calls to police when he made the threats were recorded. Eaton said he was feeling murderously angry.”

Charles Evans, defending, said Eaton no longer lived in Trinity Road and since the incidents had shown remorse.

Judge Simon James told him: “You have described being the target of a long-running, concerted course of harassment by your former neighbour and former friend.

“I accept that you genuinely believed he was responsible for damaging your vehicle and your threats were borne out of a sense of frustration, but that is no justification for making those threats.

“But you have no history of violence and I accept there was no real intention to carry out those threats. However making threats to kill is a serious matter and the courts cannot tolerate people taking the law into their own hands.”

Eaton, who admitted making threats to kill was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to stay clear of Trinity Road in Folkestone.

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