A dustman drove his neighbours to despair by blasting them with loud music - when he went out.

Graham Tusler, 61, connected his television, radio and hi-fi to timer switches and programmed them to play while he was away.

When he left his semi-detached home in Windmill Copse, Storrington, near Worthing, they would turn on and off at intervals, day and night.

Tusler yesterday launched an appeal at Lewes Crown Court against a harassment conviction imposed by magistrates earlier this year. But his distraught next-door neighbour Elizabeth Bates broke down as she told the judge: "It has been a living hell."

Mrs Bates, a nurse in her 40s who has lived in her home for 22 years, added: "I thought I was heading for a mental breakdown but I had a heart attack instead.

"It was just so awful. I thought there would be no end to the torture. I just felt we were being broken. I just felt it was Mr Tusler's prime intent to drive us out of our property and to break us physically and mentally.

"It consumes your life. Our lives had became totally dominated by what was happening next door.

"I work nights sometimes and I was unable to sleep in the day. I would try to sleep with earplugs but the volume was so loud that became impossible."

She told the court the music, sometimes with a booming bass, would start as early as 5am and was so loud it could be heard in every room of her house. Tusler would sometimes let his dogs out to bark in the garden at 3am.

She said she had repeatedly tried to speak to Tusler about the disturbance he caused but he would ignore her.

She tried to get help from the police and Horsham District Council.

But the police told her officers could not help because Tusler's noise nuisance was the responsibility of the council.

Staff there passed her back to the police, maintaining she was being harassed.

She said: "Nobody would help. They all abdicated responsibility."

Tusler was found guilty in March this year of harassing Mr and Mrs Bates by causing a noise nuisance and allowing his two dogs to bark in the early hours of the morning. He was also convicted of causing criminal damage to the couple's back door and to Mr Bates' car.

He was sentenced to carry out 100 hours of a community punishment order and pay them £1,040 compensation.

He was also made the subject of a restraining order stopping him from playing loud music late at night and requiring him to stop his dogs barking.

The court heard there had been a history of problems between the neighbours since Tusler moved in 13 years ago.

There had been attempts to put a stop to the trouble through civil action and mediation through the council.

Tusler is alleged to have scratched Mr Bates' car while he was out shopping.

In September Mrs Bates was woken in the early hours by loud banging. When she went outside to remonstrate with Tusler one of his dogs, a black labrador, ran into her house. She shut the door trapping the dog inside, but Tusler tried to kick in the back door before smashing a pane of glass.

Mrs Bates said she had no idea why Tusler began his campaign against them.

But she suspected it was because he blamed her husband, a former county councillor, after Tusler's planning application to build a hard-standing was rejected by the local council.

The hearing continues.