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| Crown Court Fight: Michael Oram |
An award-winning gardener, prosecuted for taking his neighbour’s shears as he tried to protect a flowering bush, has been threatened with jail if he flouts a new restriction.
Pensioner Michael Oram, 74, was preventing what he describes as “environmental vandalism”, but the act put him in breach of a ‘Crimbo’ - imposed after years of bitter gardening disputes.
The twice-married former Kew Gardens gatekeeper, of The Barons, St. Margaret’s, Twickenham pleaded guilty to breaching the Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) and will be sentenced later this year.
However, today at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court Judge Judith Coello told him: “You have had four years of this now and it must be wearing you down like everyone else.
“The court is trying to prevent conflict between you and your neighbours, but if you do not comply there is only one outcome I’m afraid and that’s imprisonment.
“You say you have been kept in police custody for a weekend and it wasn’t that bad because they treated you well, but it would be a different experience in Wandsworth or the Scrubs. It is horrendous.”
Oram has three conviction for harassment, plus a police caution for harassment since 2015 after leading a law-abiding life for seven decades.
The judge rejected a police and Crown Prosecution Service request to completely ban Oram from his rear garden under the terms of the CBO, but limited his allowed time to 10am-3pm, Monday to Friday.
The two-year ‘Crimbo’, imposed after Oram was convicted of harassing downstairs neighbour Jasmine McMurdo, 56, an NHS employee, also prohibits him talking to her and another neighbour and interfering with their gardening.
The Winchester College-educated retired employment agency boss once ran a King’s Road, Chelsea business, which supplied domestic staff to the aristocracy and the rich and famous.
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| Oram Despairs At Bush Cutting |
Oram, who describes himself as a “peace-loving Buddhist”, moved into the housing association flat after losing his £3m Richmond Hill home in a divorce after an affair with he and his wife’s Peruvian au pair.
His devoted gardening secured Richmond-upon-Thames’s ‘Borough in Bloom’ silver prize and during a previous garden ban he continued tending to his plants by leaning over the wall from the street.
There have been so many police call-outs to the quiet suburban corner of Twickenham, opposite the famous film studios, locals have seen their insurance premiums rocket.
Grandfather Oram says he is being harassed and when he recently used his garden shed he found a wooden board with the message: “F*** off! Oram. Smile. You are on CCTV! Leave this alone!”
Oram was arrested when Ms McMurdo called the police after he took away the shears she was using to trim a bush on the pathway to her basement flat on April 19.
“You cannot cut a flowering bush, you have to wait until the flowers bloom for a few weeks,” said Oram in his garden, looking horrified at the results of his neighbour’s trimming.
She has also received a police harassment warning for her behaviour towards Oram and landlord Richmond Housing installed CCTV cameras all over the property.
Challenging the prosecution application to ban him from the rear garden Oram told the court: “Richmond Housing appointed me what they call: ‘The Green Fingers.’
“I would be devastated if I could not use the garden. I would have to write-off thousands of pounds of investment in flowers, shrubs and fertilisers.
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| Oram Says He Was Left This Sign |
“They are the size of two tennis courts and reflect my years of back-breaking effort. I also enjoy reclining in the back garden and reading the newspaper and I’ve constructed a BBQ.
“I also need to use the laundry lines to hang my washing. It saves a few pennies and every penny counts. I am a pensioner.
“I love looking out of my window at the garden, at the wildlife and birds and squirrels that feed. If I was banned the impact would be substantial.
“Ms McMurdo commenced cutting back a large flowering shrub that provides a good supply of nutrients to butterflies and bees and I advised her to wait until the plant finished flowering.
“It was just sad to see the plant decimated in that manner. She laughed and said she was going to call the police. She’d like to see me evicted, that’s her main ambition in life.”
Oram says he’s now plagued by flies around his window since Ms McMurdo put a cat litter tray outside her back door. “I think she did that to provoke me.
“These complaints are instigated by a neighbour who has a grievance against me,” he told the court.
However, prosecutor Mr. Paul Casey suggested Oram was exaggerating his love of the gardens. “What is fundamental to your life is making your neighbours and Ms McMurdo’s life a misery, isn’t it?”
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| Downstairs Neighbour: Jasmine McMurdo |
Oram denied this, adding: “I will not stand for my right, my human rights, English law rights to be rolled over.”
Oram’s lawyer Martin Scott told the court: “He removed shears that that were on the back steps of the property, not in the rear garden.
“He has got a right to a family life and the prosecution want to put in place orders that prevent him doing things that don’t cause anyone any harm, like gardening.
“The neighbour in her time has been warned for harassment against him and filmed him and the parties are trying to score points against each other at every turn.”
Previously Ms McMurdo said: “I have suffered harassment over the years. Mr. Oram has targeted me to drive me out and I have often been in tears.
“He has tried to make my flat uninhabitable and has now turned to vandalising my vegetables and flowers.”
She said Oram sent her a text warning: “If we don’t find peace the future is going to be very grim for you and your son.”
She added: “I’ve been torn in two. I feel so unsafe with Mr. Oram living above me.
“I feel on edge all the time. I have a feeling of dread in my chest. I never know what I’m going to walk into.
“I just wait for something to happen. I have no enjoyment at being at home anymore.”
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