Nightmare neighbour nicknamed ‘Big Brother’ faces jail after waging a vindictive smear and surveillance campaign against his neighbours in which he accused them of using drugs and inviting rapists into their home

A nightmare neighbor faces jail after waging a vengeful smear and surveillance campaign against his neighbors, accusing them of using drugs and inviting rapists into their home.

Matthew Kenyon, 36, became so ‘fixated’ with his neighbors – Carey and Rachel Styles – that he set up CCTV cameras to spy on them, a court heard.

During his ten-month campaign, Kenyon wrote a series of pen emails and fabricated complaints about the couple in a bid to get them to leave their £200,000 rented home in Widnes, Cheshire.

Kenyon, nicknamed ‘Big Brother’, wrote letters to the school where Mrs Styles worked as a teaching assistant, falsely claiming she and her husband had mixed with ‘prolific cocaine users’.

He also reported Mr Styles to the police and the council after Kenyon discovered he unknowingly employed a convicted rapist as one of his workers.

In a furious email to local authorities, Kenyon called himself a “bulldog with a wasp in my mouth” and called Mr Styles a “son of a bitch (who) has overstayed his welcome.”

The court heard Mr and Mrs Styles moved into the property on Pleasant Street in 2017 but got into an argument with Kenyans when a gust of wind blew their van door into the body of Kenyon’s BMW.

They began arguing over the cost of repairs and Mr Styles was reported to police after he was repeatedly caught on Kenyon’s CCTV abusing him and on one occasion spraying the BMW with bleach.

Matthew Kenyon, 36, (pictured) faces jail after being convicted of stalking

Rachel Styles (left) and husband Carey Styles (right) have moved out of their home as a result of Kenyon’s smear and surveillance campaign

In 2022, Mr Styles was convicted of harassment and fined £160 and required to comply with a six-month ‘acceptable behaviour’ contract set out by Halton Housing, which rents out the property.

But Kenyon sent a slew of complaints about Mr. and Mrs. Styles to various agencies in a spiteful attempt to get them to move on.

At Warrington Magistrates Court, Kenyon denied wrongdoing but was convicted of stalking after a trial.

In one of a series of emails to the headmistress of Ms Styles’ school, Kenyon said of her friendship with another couple: ‘It’s all about snorting cocaine and throwing parties.

‘Because Ms. Rachel Styles works as a teaching assistant, she is responsible for the children in her care. How responsible can she be for those children if she is crazy about drinking and drugs?

“She even went out until four in the morning the day after the Queen died.”

Kenyon further claimed that Mr Styles had been convicted of criminal damage, hitting a pedestrian, harassment and other ‘conduct’ which he said was ‘encouraged by his wife’.

An eight-page A4-page tirade email that was copied by the police, the council and Ofsted said: ‘I’m a bulldog with a wasp in my mouth and I’m never going back.

“I know this comes back on them, but I don’t care. Mr. Carey Styles and Ms. Rachel Styles are both due for drug testing. I’ll say until I’m blue in the face.

Pictured: Pleasant Street in Widnes, where the harassment took place

‘I don’t want a convicted rapist coming through, and neither do the residents. This scum bag has overstayed its welcome in Widnes. They need to pack their bags. I suggest that the police contact me regarding the police complaint as I will be contacting them one last time today. Enough is enough.’

Mr Styles, 44, told the court: ‘Some of the complaints were even about my singing. I should have been singing to him, but the fact is, I was singing in my van when I got home from work.

‘I just wanted to comply with the court order and get on with my life, but I was constantly being watched. There were numerous cameras looking not only outside the building, but also into my building and garden.

‘We told people who came to my house: ‘You are under observation. Big Brother is watching you.’ I had to let people know not to talk outside my door because cameras picked up every word they said.

‘I explained to them that they were not allowed to talk outside and if they did talk, that they had to talk quietly.

“He could see right into the backyard where we used to sit. We used to have a table and a jacuzzi that we had to move and then remove completely because we knew the cameras were watching our private property.

‘One camera was aimed directly at two side windows, so we had to tilt our blinds so that you couldn’t see through them. We made numerous attempts to leave and even joined a number of home exchange groups.

‘He made life in our house an absolute misery. Every minute in our building – even when the doors were closed and the blinds closed, it was a misery for us. We had to move.

“I think he was trying to antagonize me, piss me off, make me mad. I believe his motivation was to destroy the lives we had worked so hard for.

‘It may be due to jealousy; he is jealous of the success I have. He doesn’t like the way I live my life. I’m happy doing fun things, but we were constantly being watched.

“We knew he wanted to win us over with false, malicious accusations. In fact, the police and the local housing association came together and told us it was in our best interests to move – on the basis of safety, our well-being and common sense.”

Ms Styles, 43, added: ‘It was an absolute nightmare and a terrible time in my life. I was dealing with cancer, dealing with treatment and trying to recover from it. It was horrible.’

Kenyon reported Mr. Styles to the police and city council after discovering that Mr. Styles unknowingly employed a convicted rapist as one of his workers. Pictured: Carey Styles

She said Kenyon had posted a message on social media, along with a photo of the property and its full address, saying the council wanted to move it.

She added, “It just made me feel sick and violated. Someone came home in response to the advertisement on social media. I was upset, crying and distraught. The man actually apologized and left.

‘I just didn’t want to live there. I felt like I was being watched 24/7. It was a terrible environment to live in. The CCTV cameras were everywhere in the house. One of the cameras had a voice recorder so they could hear our voices.

‘It was horrible. I loved my job and it really affected my self-confidence. I think he tried to ruin our lives, make me look bad and make me lose my job. Some days I just didn’t want to get out of bed. I was so tired of it. It was a terrible, terrible time.”

In his testimony, Kenyon denied deliberately pointing his CCTV cameras at the Styles’ property, but said he had been advised by the council and police to keep a log of incidents following Mr Styles’ conviction for intimidation.

Kenyon said: “I do not feel that either organization took the reports following his conviction seriously. I have since been diagnosed with anxiety due to the harassment from him.

‘I was frustrated that the police and Halton Housing did not take any action against the Styles, or confront the harassment he caused us, all of which was supported by CCTV evidence.

‘My observations come from what I saw while I was just there. You even see them quite often at the front, and also in the driveway. You see a lot.

‘If I report it to the authorities and they take no action, I won’t just forget about it. I wanted positive action to come out of it.”

Sentencing Kenyon, JP Fraser Geekie said: ‘It is clear to us that you cannot accept the authorities’ view that the behavior of your neighbors does not amount to harassment. As a result, you acted in the manner alleged.

‘The content of the emails went far beyond rational intervention and you do not accept the authorities’ positions at all.

‘There are many complaints that were unjustified. Your behavior between September 1, 2022 and June 10, 2023 was indeed unreasonable and irrational. In any case, the threshold of the community fine has been crossed and it can go further.’

Kenyon was told to return for sentencing on July 9.