A pensioner who has terrorised neighbours for almost a decade has been given an antisocial behaviour order.

Chairman McCormack was described by residents as the worst neighbour in Brighton and Hove after her nine-year campaign of abuse, harassment and threats.

Brighton and Hove City Council and the police have been gathering evidence on the 62-year-old, of Grange Road, Hove, for two years.

They were yesterday granted an interim Asbo by magistrates.

McCormack makes her neighbours' lives hell by shouting foul-mouthed abuse and racist and homophobic taunts on a daily basis, the Brighton court heard She is also a nuisance to the emergency services, making about 140 false and malicious 999 calls to police, firefighters and paramedics in two years, said Sergeant Dave Bettis.

He said: "She is having a severe detrimental effect on her neighbours and the community in Hove at large."

Under the terms of the order she is banned from being drunk and disorderly in public; using threatening or abusive behaviour; entering a private residence without permission;

intrusive and inappropriate use of binoculars; obstructing the highway; making false 999 calls; disposing of rubbish in the street and using racist or homophobic language.

McCormack did not attend court.

Brighton and Hove City Council prosecutor Simon Court told the hearing of McCormack's behaviour.

It included throwing rubbish, bottles and furniture from her bedroom window out onto the street, banging on neighbours' doors and shouting abuse through their letterboxes.

In recent months she has also terrorised shopping areas such as George Street and Church Road, swearing at shopkeepers and passers-by.

Mr Court told the hearing: "Her anti-social behaviour has been ongoing for at least nine years to varying degrees but has got a lot worse of late. It is so bad some neighbours have felt forced to move away from the area.

"On one recent occasion she deliberately knocked a steaming hot cup of coffee from the hand of a woman which just missed landing on a child in a buggy.

"She is often abusive to people when young children are present and abusive and threatening to the children.

"In March this year, for no apparent reason, she banged and spat at a window of a neighbour."

She was homophobic towards a police community support officer and racist to a 14-year-old Jamaican boy in one incident, said Mr Court.

McCormack even abused officers when they served her with notice of yesterday's court proceedings.

The court heard McCormack had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and treated for alcoholism several times but nothing had worked.

Magistrate Roy Simmonds said: "We agree with the view this is a prolific amount of antisocial behaviour and there is an urgent need to protect public services and the community."

A full Asbo hearing will be heard on July 4 and 6 when up to six neighbours could give evidence.