Millionaire couple had neighbour jailed for singing Jimi Hendrix and threatened woman with HAY BALE in 10-year feud over extension
Judge ruled Michael and Hazel Salliss 'bullied neighbours to get them to adjust boundaries' in Etchingham, East Sussex
A COUPLE had their neighbour arrested for belting out a Jimi Hendrix song and threatened another with a hay bale during a 10-year row over an extension, a court heard.
Michael Salliss, 74, and wife Hazel, 62, told cops pub band guitarist Terry Simou was threatening to shoot them with a gun.
In fact Mr Simou, 53, was practising the Hendrix classic Hey Joe, which features the line: "I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady".
The acupuncture therapist spent seven hours locked up at a police station before being released after only ten minutes of questioning in August 2014.
A county court judge found it was just one episode in a campaign of bullying by Mr and Mrs Salliss during a long-running boundary dispute.
Hendrix classic led to seven-hour arrest
'Hey Joe' by Bobby Roberts
Recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966
Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun of yours?
Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand, oh
I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady
You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man
I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady
You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man
The couple, of Etchingham, East Sussex, have for years been locked in parallel disputes with Mr Simou next door and another neighbour, sheep-breeding pensioner Christie Greenfield.
They were accused of planting a tree to obstruct Mrs Greenfield's right of way and staging a land grab of parts of Mr Simou's property, including a plot meant for parking cars outside his home.
Mr Salliss racially abused Mr Simou for his Greek origin, and threatened retired music teacher Mrs Greenfield from the seat of his tractor with a bale of hay on a spike, the court heard.
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He held the bale over her head and jiggled it up and down as if to drop it on her – leaving her so petrified that she was physically sick, according to the .
She told the paper: “Those bales weigh nearly a ton and if the hydraulics had failed I wouldn’t be standing here today. It was very scary. It was done purely for intimidation.”
But the former educator captured the whole incident on camera and joined forces with Mr Simou to take their nightmare neighbours to court in 2015, the paper reports.
Judge Simon Coltart ruled the Sallisses, who run a construction company, had bullied both neighbours in a bid to improve their home.
He said: “Mr and Mrs Salliss have attempted to bully their neighbours in order for them to adjust the boundaries to suit their own requirements without any attempt at consultation or negotiation – let alone agreement – and when challenged they resorted to abuse and hectoring.”
Of Mr Simou's arrest, the judge said: “I am quite satisfied that the complaint was instigated by Mr and Mrs Salliss and that their allegation that in some way Mr Simou was threatening to shoot them with a gun was trumped up.
“It may have been the words of the song, but they were using it in a dishonest way to effect his arrest, and I regard that as being an extremely serious incident of harassment.”
The case left the couple facing legal bills for more than £500,000.
But they are now fighting to overturn the ruling as the extraordinary neighbourhood battle continues at London's Court of Appeal.
Their lawyers claim findings made against them were tainted because Mr Salliss was too ill to attend the whole of the county court trial.
Barrister Matthew Collings QC said: "It is respectfully submitted that Mr Salliss cannot have been in any position to do justice to his evidence or his case."
Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton, sitting with Lord Justice Beatson and Lord Justice Henderson, will give judgment on the Sallisses' appeal at a later date.
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