text: A grieving widow said she was frightened for the lives of herself and her family thanks to a 'nasty' neighbour who terrorised them for seven years. During the course of her harassment, Pauline Bruce's neighbour Yvonne Ireland Evans plagued her with silent calls, taunted her dying husband and attacked her son with secateurs. It's not the quiet and peaceful life pensioners Pauline and her late husband Tony expected when they moved to a static home on a community park for over-50s in Ludlow, Shropshire, following Tony's retirement in 2002. Scroll down for video . Pauline and her son John were terrorised by their next door neighbour for seven years . Next-door-neighbour Yvonne went from being a friend, to a nuisance, and then a threat to their safety. She didn't even show any compassion when Tony was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2011 and continued to torment Pauline and her son from a previous marriage, John, when they were grieving his death a year later. Pauline reveals on Channel 5's The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door how Yvonne turned on her after finding out she had struck up a friendship with another woman on the community park. Pauline explains: 'Our relationship started off very well, she was a very nice person, if she could help you in any way she would. She used to come in and have a cup of tea, we became friends.' But it all changed when Pauline started spending more time with another neighbour as they were working on a gardening project together. Yvonne started ignoring her and when Pauline asked why, she was told: 'because I had a new best friend, she didn't want to know us any more.' John holds up some secateurs like the one Yvonne Evans had her her hand when she attacked him . Pauline admits: 'I thought that was a bit petty, I didn't know you were restricted to one friend in life.' But then Yvonne's behaviour took a more sinister turn. She began making silent phone calls to the couple day and night. Pauline said: 'It unnerved us very much, you don't know why people are making silent calls or who they are.' They discovered Yvonne was the culprit after the police traced the calls. She was given a fixed penalty notice and fine. But Pauline said it only led to her harassment becoming worse. 'She'd walk past the house and stick her fingers up at us. She started shouting abuse through the windows calling us peeping Toms and perverts - it went on like this for four years,' Pauline recalled. 'It got to the stage where I'd wake up and think "I hope nothing happens today", I'd always have a sick feeling in my stomach.' Then in March 2011 Tony was diagnosed with terminal cancer and told he didn't have long to live. When Yvonne heard the news, instead of expressing sympathy, she mocked Tony telling him: 'You've got cancer, you are going to die.' She also started making her crank phone calls again. Pauline said: 'Tony was terminally ill so we had precious time left and to have that spoiled by someone making unnecessary phone calls made things worse. Why do it when you know he's dying? Why cause us this much hassle?' The couple again got the police involved and Yvonne pleaded guilty to harassment in court and was fined £100. She signed a community resolution saying she would stay away from the family but she didn't stick to it. Yvonne, pictured in footage taken by John, would taunt the family about Tony's cancer . When John was visiting one day, he said she threatened him with a four-foot long branch. John said: 'I was pottering around in the garden and she was on the other side of the fence. She started spurting her mouth off about Tony having cancer saying "oh dear, guess who's got cancer, and guess who's got terminal cancer". 'I stepped closer and saw she had a weapon - a branch in her hand.' John then filmed Yvonne with his mobile phone appearing to hit him with the branch over the fence. Following Tony's death, John moved in with his mother to support her and he continued to be abused by Yvonne. 'As soon as I walked in the back gate she would be waiting for me,' he said. Tony died in 2012 with no sympathy from Yvonne who instead harassed the family with crank calls . Despite being heterosexual, John said Yvonne would make homophobic jibes towards him as well as calling him a 'w*****' and a 'mummy's boy'. Then one day the abuse became physical after Yvonne's dog attacked John's, Scrappy, after leaping into their garden. John said: 'I heard a crash bang from the garden and Scrappy was in the jaws of a pretty big dog.' John rescued Scrappy and kept Yvonne's dog in the house, causing Yvonne to then climb over the fence, holding secateurs, demanding her pet back. 'She started hitting me screaming "give me my dog back",' John said. 'The secateurs missed my throat by an inch.' Pauline witnessed the encounter and tried to intervene to stop Yvonne attacking her son. 'I was frightened for our lives. We told her to get back into her own garden and then we'd give her her dog,' she said. 'We called the police, I dread to think what she could have done.' Yvonne told the police she had been acting in self defence so Pauline and John decided not to press charges. Instead, they collected all the evidence they had of Yvonne's abusive behaviour and submitted it to the owner of the community park. This led to Yvonne being served an eviction notice and she was told to leave within eight weeks. Pauline said Yvonne continued to be 'nasty' in this time and once again John said she hit him when he caught her prowling around his mother's house at night. The mother and son were delighted and relieved when Yvonne was finally evicted. 'I'm not sorry she's gone I have a much more peaceful life now and can grieve for Tony,' Pauline said. 'I'm so sorry he wasn't here to see the day she went. 'Soon I will get some new neighbours and I pray to God they will be nice and not neighbours from hell.' The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door is on Channel 5 Wednesdays at 8pm .
target: Pauline Bruce's neighbour Yvonne plagued her for seven years .
  Yvonne made silent phone calls day and night and shouted abuse .
  Taunted her husband, Tony, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer .
  'I was frightened for our lives,' said Pauline, from Ludlow, Shropshire .