A TRAUMATISED veteran narrowly escaped jail after blaming his campaign of harassment on his neighbours giving him flashbacks by banging doors.

Darlington man Keith Cooper was left with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving with the RAF, where he completed 12 tours of Northern Ireland between 1975 and 1986.

In 2014, Cooper told The Northern Echo of how he had watched a civilian family die and narrowly escaped death himself, later spiralling into alcoholism and crime after struggling to deal with the trauma.

At the time, he was working with North-East charities to turn his life around and had rebuilt relationships with family and friends.

On Thursday, Newton Aycliffe Magistrates Court heard how the 60-year-old had relapsed and become embroiled in a bitter dispute with his next door neighbour.

He was reported to the police after repeatedly banging on an adjoining wall and screaming threats and obscenities at the woman.

Police spoke to him about his conduct on Friday, November 25 and arrested him shortly afterwards, having subsequently gone into his neighbour’s home and heard him shouting at her though the wall.

A statement from the victim said Cooper’s behaviour had caused stress and friction with her partner.

It said: “Keith Cooper is affecting my quality of life – I spend the days waiting and worrying that he will kick off, especially if I’m on my own.

“I have the right to a peaceful life but he is stopping me from having that.”

Elizabeth Aisbett, mitigating, said Cooper, of Skerries Walk, was currently seeking counselling, adding: “He suffers from PTSD and as a result of the banging on the walls of the next door property, he has flashbacks and reflects on explosions.

“It triggers him and that causes him to have an episode, as he calls it.”

For a charge of harassment without violence, District Judge Helen Cousins sentenced Cooper – who has a number of similar convictions – to a 12 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months and issued a restraining order in relation to his neighbour.

She said: “I notice that the loud bangs were not reminiscent of guns when he was banging on the walls when officers were there.”

In relation to the same incident, Cooper’s wife, Carol, received a £140 fine and ordered to pay £100 compensation, £30 victim surcharge and £80 costs after pleading guilty to assaulting a constable in the execution of his duty.

She claimed she had barged past an officer in a desperate attempt to calm her husband down during the arrest.