Michael Matthews (Image: South Wales Police)
Last Updated: 3 minutes ago
A 70-year-old man who repeatedly targeted his neighbour despite being under a court order to stay away has been sent to prison and handed a decade-long restraining order.
The victim’s ordeal
Swansea Crown Court heard how the victim had endured years of hostility from Michael James Matthews, of Clos Crucywel, Cwmrhydyceirw, Swansea.
In a statement read to the court, the victim described the cumulative effect of the harassment as like “death by a thousand cuts”. He said that while individual incidents might appear minor on their own, Matthews had caused him “nothing but problems” over the years.
Such was the impact that the victim said he had at times moved in with his parents and even accepted work overseas to get away from Matthews. He had hoped that a restraining order imposed last year would “stop him tormenting me” – but the behaviour continued regardless.
Previous conviction
Samuel Jenkins, prosecuting, outlined how a string of incidents during 2025 – which included Matthews damaging his neighbour’s car with a dumbbell – led to the defendant receiving a suspended prison sentence and a two-year restraining order in July of that year.
Continued breaches
Despite that court order, Matthews carried on directing verbal abuse at his neighbour. The court heard he would frequently speak directly into the camera of the victim’s video doorbell, sometimes accompanying the remarks with obscene gestures.
The incidents were reported to police in February this year. When officers arrested Matthews at his Cwmrhydyceirw home, he told them that if his neighbour “got in his face he would kill him”.
Defence arguments
Ryan Bowen, representing Matthews, told the court his client had been held on remand since his arrest on April 16 and that the experience had been “particularly difficult”. He said that as the defendant approaches his 71st birthday “he is genuinely keen to turn the page of this regrettable, and indeed lamentable, chapter”.
Sentencing
Matthews had previously pleaded guilty to five counts of breaching a restraining order. He has multiple convictions for harassment stretching back to 2009.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Matthews had subjected his neighbour to what could only be described as a “campaign of harassment” and had succeeded in “making his life a misery”.
He told the defendant: “I am told that in your 70s you want to lead a quiet life. Carry on the way you are going, and you will leading that quiet life in Swansea Prison.”
With credit for his guilty pleas, Matthews was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The judge also activated two months of the previously suspended sentence to run consecutively, bringing the total to 20 months. Matthews will serve 40 per cent of the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Judge Thomas also imposed a 10-year restraining order.
