HE USED to be the Sheriff of Southampton – but now he stands accused of being the neighbour from hell.

A four-year dispute with his neighbour has seen former Sheriff Harry Mitchell featured in a television documentary where he is blamed for “making her life a misery”.

Laurel Wingfield said her quarrel with Mr Mitchell started when she had suspicions he was taking his dog Rocko to defecate on a communal garden at the back of her flat in Lordshill.

But the former Liberal Democrat councillor, who appears on Channel Five’s The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door, strongly denies the accusations.

Ms Wingfield, who is unable to work as she suffers from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), said she approached Mr Mitchell when he was walking the dog.

The 54-year-old said: “I just asked him ‘have you taken the dog out there to mess on the garden?’ and I got the most unbelievable amount of abuse, and that was the very first time I met him.”

She complained to the city council about the dog mess, and a letter was sent out to all residents asking them to make sure dogs did not defecate on communal areas.

Ms Wingfield added: “After the council sent the letter round, he came storming round and hammered on my door, shouting ‘I know it was you’.

“I tried to reason with him that people with dogs should keep them under control.

“But then his eyes started to shine and he stood up on my front door, and I thought he was going to attack me, so I shut the door abruptly.”

She claims she has had several other run-ins with Mr Mitchell, who was a candidate in Freemantle earlier this year, where he has shouted at her or been threatening towards her.

She added that she was so scared of him, she fitted a camera to the front of her flat, but was told to remove it by the council.

“I’ve been living in fear of him ever since, I’ve been put through hell”, she said.

“He is a neighbour from hell.

My illness is made worse by stress, and it’s certainly been made worse by this.”

A former neighbour, Samantha Owens, said she heard Mr Mitchell talking to Ms Wingfield at the back of the flats late one night.

She said: “He had ambushed her and was threatening her.

“It was bang out of order, noone should accost anybody in the dark in their own garden like that.”

When approached by the Daily Echo, Mr Mitchell, 79, said the allegations were “not true at all”, adding: “To say that Rocko was round the back of her flats and messing in her garden is a lie.

“He has only done it out there twice, and I picked it up.”

He added that he believed the dispute had started as Ms Wingfield blamed him for the city council fitting gates around the area to prevent stray dogs getting in.

Ms Wingfield admitted the gates have caused her difficulty in getting out due to her condition and that the dispute with the council is ongoing.