Widow driven to brink of suicide by neighbour's torment over shrine to husband
A grieving widow was left contemplating suicide after a busybody neighbour launched a vindictive hate campaign against her over a shrine she set up in memory of her late husband.
Jobsworth ex-social worker Anthony Kenyon, 52, drove his neighbour Margaret Ilkovics, 60, to the brink of suicide by trashing her shrine and quoting health and safety rules to claim he tribute was “blocking a fire escape”. Church volunteer Mrs Ilkovics was subjected to callous smears and vandalism after Kenyon objected to shrubs, ornaments and a memory box she placed under a pussy willow tree in the communal garden as a daily reminder of her late spouse Richard.
Kenyon claimed the tribute at Regina Court in Salford, Greater Manchester a "health and safety hazard" and was said to have uprooted the three foot high tree, killed off the grass and plants with weed killer and even damaged the ornaments which included commemorative dolls. He also claimed the shrine was a “health and safety hazard”.
Anthony Kenyon was given a 13 month suspended sentence after Mrs Ilkovics captured him on CCTV (Cavendish Press (Manchester) Ltd)He was also accused of claiming Mrs Ilkovics' husband who died of cancer aged just 54 was "bogus" and that she had only married him for his money in a series of poison pen notes. Retired clerk Mrs Ilkovics won a two year restraining order against Kenyon in 2020 but he continued harassing her by putting raw octopus through her letter box, smearing cocoa powder on her door, and throwing eggs at her property.
He was arrested after she installed a security camera to capture his campaign of harassment against her. In a statement the victim described Kenyon's behaviour as "mental torture" and said he was preventing her from properly grieving her husband who passed away in 2018. She also said she had "seriously" considered suicide and added: “Please help make this stop. I do not deserve this. I just want to be left alone to heal and enjoy the years that I have left."
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Kenyon faced up to four years jail under sentencing guidelines after he admitted breaching a restraining order at Manchester Crown Court. He was sentenced to 13 months in prison, suspended for 18 months after it emerged he has since been evicted. A new four year restraining order was also issued preventing him from contacting Mrs Ilkovics and he was ordered to complete 25 rehabilitation activity days.
Margaret outside her home in Salford (Margaret Ilkovics/ Cavendish Pres (Manchester) Ltd)The victim had married her husband in June 2018 as he lay terminally ill in hospital and he died the following month. But she fell out with Kenyon when she set up the shrine outside their respective homes in the apartment complex which houses the elderly or those with disabilities.
In one salvo during the so-called "Battle of Regina Court" Kenyon dumped some of the ornaments in a shoebox on Mrs Ilkovic's wheelie bin whilst she was away on holiday with an acerbic note saying: "Please find enclosed the funeral ornaments you placed without permission. Said items I'm reliably informed are supposed to be placed indoors either side of an urn for example.
"Whilst one appreciates certain individuals placing such items and all manner of other rubbish on graves, It is not acceptable in a domestic garden. You have caused not only an affront to my religious beliefs but blocked access to the fire escape and wasted police time."
Margaret and Richard Ilkovics got marries shortly before his death (Cavendish Press (Manchester) Ltd)The victim also said Kenyon would also "rant and rave" at her from behind a window at his flat and unnecessarily summoning ambulances to her home wrongly claiming she had a severe mental illness and needed "taking away." One note he put in his window referred to Mrs Ilkovic's home saying: "Goods available strictly COD (cash on delivery) convicted shoplifter."
In January 2022 Mrs Ilkovics bought a Ring doorbell for £340 to catch Kenyon and footage over an eight-day period showed him throwing sticks, burnt carrots and rubbish outside her front door and throwing a light-bulb and aerosol cans at her wall. He also spilled a thick liquid solution from a container outside the front door.
Miss Jane Dagnall, prosecuting: "It captured a sustained campaign of harassment. Mrs Ilkovics has said she has felt targeted by Mr Kenyon. She has felt harassed, alarmed and distressed. She described the effect of his behaviour as mental torture and preventing her from properly grieving her husband who passed away in 2018. She has seriously considered suicide."
In mitigation defence counsel Michael Lavery said: "While no doubt Mrs Ilkovichs felt severe distress one has to approach the case with a certain realistic attitude and look at what he actually did. He spilt liquid down the drain, on another occasion a light bulb was thrown at the wall, and sticks thrown on the path in a communal area.
"I am not down playing what happened mentally, but what one has to consider whether this is harm of a serious nature, or if very serious distress was caused to the victim. Of course she feels it, she is the victim of it, but the court will be aware of more serious cases.' Since his arrest there has been no repetition and he has moved away from the area."
Sentencing Kenyon Judge Kate Cornell told him: "Low level these incidents may be, but they were repeated and targeted against her and calculated to continuously annoy and upset her, and they did. "Mrs Ilkovics has reported feeling anxious, depressed, even to the point of feeling suicidal. She has not felt able to grieve for her husband, and not felt able to go out and live her life freely. To other people it seems that you are at a low risk of reoffending, apart from Mrs Ilkovic but this was a clear and persistent breach of a restraining order.
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"I cannot discount the severity of the impact she felt but I do accept these were essentially nuisance and low level offence - although very nasty in their impact. If you went to custody, you would have very little rehabilitation which would not assist anyone to my mind. But you need to help to make sure that you do not resort to this type of petty and vindictive behaviour again."
Ilkovics said: "I still have not gotten over it [Rick's passing]. I was with Rick for 19 years. We got married seven weeks before he died. We talked about it but we just never got around to it. We were like a married couple. He was a wonderful man, kind, loving, generous, sweet, caring, everything you could wish for. 19 years with Rick, best time in my life."
She said met him when she moved in next door to him in Crumpsall: "I went from having a wonderful neighbour who ended up becoming my husband, to an evil one, he is evil." After the case Mrs Ilkovics said: "He's just an evil man and I don't know what I would have done if he had been allowed to stay next door. I would lying awake night after night worrying about going outside and finding the mess he made. I was even worried this year about putting a Christmas tree outside or putting up holly wreath on the door. But at least he can't come anywhere near there now. I was dancing when I found he had to move away. I have been messaging everyone saying: 'He is gone now - gone at last'."
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email [email protected] or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.
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