A maths teacher in Kent has been convicted of harassing his German neighbours by playing wartime classics and performing Nazi salutes. Reinhard and Kathryn Wendt (both 62) said neighbour Geoffrey Butler (54) made their lives a misery over four years and the abuse was like “being water-boarded”.
Butler was found guilty yesterday of racially aggravated harassment and sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge at the request of his neighbours, who said they did not want vengeance.
He was also given a restraining order banning him from playing loud music, using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour towards the couple, pointing photographic equipment at them or their property or making any suggestive comments towards the German race.
Butler, Lower Upnor, Kent, loudly played wartime songs including The White Cliffs Of Dover by Vera Lynn, the Dambusters theme tune and Rule Britannia, whistled patriotic tunes, as well as broadcasting a Winston Churchill speech, Medway magistrates’ court was told. – (PA)