- Mr Manson-Smith and his wife were awarded £273,000 at the High Court in 2021 after a judge ruled Arthurworrey carried out a ‘serious course of harassment’ against them
- Arthurworrey, who now lives in Worthing, admitted one count of breaching a restraining order between May 2018 and July 2020
A music producer who made his neighbours’ lives a misery by blasting loud music through the walls and hurling rubbish into the garden in a six year harassment campaign has avoided jail.
Mark Arthurworrey, 70, who has worked with artists including Earth Wind and Fire and Annie Lennox, has escaped with a suspended sentence after disturbing a couple and their two young children.
Victim Misha Manson-Smith, 49, a director, and his journalist wife Alexandra had bought the ground floor flat in Dalston, east London, which was part of a house formerly owned by Arthurworrey’s mother.
He converted the house and continued to live in a flat there – but disputed the Manson-Smiths’ rights to use the front garden.
Arthurworrey was given a restraining order in 2017 but ignored it and when the Manson-Smiths moved out in 2019, he harrassed their tenants.
The Manson-Smiths had claimed Arthurworrey allowed water to pour through the ceiling into smoke alarms and lighting which left the flat without power for five days.
After returning from a holiday in 2018, the family found pigeon droppings on the outside patio and a dead rat riddled with maggots in the bin.
Mr Manson-Smith and his wife were awarded £273,000 at the High Court in 2021 after a judge ruled Arthurworrey carried out a ‘serious course of harassment’ against them.
Rebecca Foulkes, prosecuting, earlier said: ‘Mr Arthurworrey was made the subject of a restraining order. That order contained a number of relevant terms.
‘Mr Arthurworrey was prohibited from any contact which may make any residents or visitors to the flat feel harassed.’
Arthurworrey had dismissed Mr Manson-Smith’s complaints saying they were not his fault.
He claimed he was unaware of the actions of builders and did not know a dead rat had been put into the recycling.
Arthurworrey, who now lives in Worthing, admitted one count of breaching a restraining order between May 2018 and July 2020.
He first stood trial at Wood Green Crown Court in March last year but the case was aborted due to Covid-19.
Giving evidence Misha Manson-Smith had told the first trial how his family had to suffer constant noise from the flat upstairs.
He said he had arrived home with his wife and two sons on the evening of May 28, 2018 when they heard sounds coming from above.
Arthurworrey admitted one charge of breaching a restraining order on the first day of his retrial.
According to the charge, between 28 May 2018 and 7 July 2020, ‘without reasonable excuse, he allowed, caused or permitted workmen who he had engaged to refurbish flat B, 108 Forest Road, E8 3BH, to carry out work which made noise which interfered or may have interfered with the rights of Flat A’.
He denied 18 further charges of acting in breach of a restraining order and the prosecution offered no evidence on those counts.Mr Manson-Smith, is a British director, writer and producer in film, television and commercials.
According to his online CV he has worked with Ali G star Sacha Baron Cohen and directed Hollwood star Michael Sheen in a short movie called Barbados.
Mr Manson-Smith told the court about a long-standing problem with broken windows in the unoccupied flat at the top of the building.
‘When we moved into the property there was broken glass and broken window frames dangling,’ he said.
Mr Manson-Smith recorded the scene with his iPhone.
The footage, played in court, showed the extent of the droppings and zoomed in on a feather with a fly crawling on it.
When asked about the feather Mr Manson-Smith said: ‘Yeah, sometimes pigeons would fall down and die.’
A year later Mr Manson-Smith found water leaking through the light fittings and the smoke alarms in the front hall and in his children’s bedroom.
Arthurworrey was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment suspended for two years and he will have to pay a victim surcharge of £140.
Judge Matthew Gullick had ordered Arthurworrey to pay damages totalling £273,475 to the Manson-Smiths with £32,000 in costs at the High Court in July 2021.
