“JAN Krause has wreaked misery on the day to lives of her victims and shown a flagrant disregard for the law and the sentence that was imposed on her.”

These are the words of Chf Supt Craig Guildford, after a jury at Chester Crown Court found the Hartford resident guilty of breaching a restraining order, on Friday.

The 47-year-old, who lives on Walnut Lane, stood trial after denying four counts of acting in breach of an order which was imposed last year, following a conviction for harassment.

She was charged with conducting observations of number 11 Walnut Lane and the Story family, shining a torch into the faces of visitors to her neighbour’s property and approaching a gas man who was testing their central heating system.

A jury took less than 20 minutes to deliver a verdict.

Following the trial, which lasted four days, Chf Supt Guildford added: “Krause has displayed an overwhelming sense of arrogance throughout the police investigation and the subsequent trials, and in my opinion it is her obsessive and arrogant nature that has fuelled her criminal conduct throughout.”

He added: “I am also keen to acknowledge the professionalism and dedication of my officers during this lengthy case - despite the efforts of Krause to undermine their professionalism.

“We are committed to supporting the victims of harassment at every level - whether it is domestic-related, community-based or as in this case, extreme neighbour issues.”

During the trial, Oliver King, prosecuting, claimed Krause had shown ‘quite deliberate behaviour’ to breach the conditions of the order and added that she ‘knew full well what she was doing’.

“It was precisely the conduct she was engaged in before relating to the order being made,” he said.

Mr King told the court that Krause’s behaviour was a breach of terms three, four and five of her restraining order.

In Krause’s defence, which was taken from two police interviews dated October 22 and December 22, 2010, she admitted positioning a reclining armchair in her garage in August 2010.

But she denied that she was sitting there to watch the Story family, instead saying that she was looking after her dog and taking a break from the tension inside her house.

"I needed to get away from her because my mum was undermining my attempts to function as a female in society,” she said.

"I wasn't staring at anybody's house.

"I was probably just staring into open space or looking for my dog."

She added: "You can't see where my pupils are looking because of the distance between the properties."

Krause claimed that a large Walnut Tree shields the view from her house to 11 Walnut Lane.

Krause denies breaching term three of the order by shining a torch into her neighbours' faces on September 21, 2010.

She said that she carried the torch for 'road safety reasons' because she was taking her dog, who had recently suffered illness, outside to urinate.

Krause claimed that instead, her neighbour Ms Story and her friends were intent on causing trouble for her.

"They came out deliberately to intercept me - they have stage managed the whole thing as usual.

"Ms Story won't be satisfied until she sees me put away.”

Krause said she approached a British Gas engineer on November 11, 2010, outside Ms Story's home and asked him if he knew that Ms Story's boiler made a whistling noise.

When passing sentence, His Hon Judge Roger Dutton, said: “The magistrates felt it necessary for the protection of the Story family that a restraining order should be put in place.

“Almost immediately you continued to behave the same way as before, making their life a thorough and complete misery.

“Why you have allowed these issues to dominate your life is a mystery to me and a great sadness to all of us.

“The consequence of you being unable to get along with your neighbours has cost the country thousands of pounds in court costs which it could ill afford.”