Retired Open University lecturer James Forster was today found guilty of waging a poison pen letter campaign in his North Yorkshire village.

The 68-year-old, of Kirklea, Grunton Lane, Manfield, sent a barrage of obscene letters claiming his next door neighbour's daughter was a prostitute, threatened to put a bomb down the chimney of a frail pensioner's home and sent a pornographic magazine to a 13-year-old girl.

On the eighth day of the trial a jury of seven women and five men at Teesside Crown Court took four-and-a-quarter hours to find the white-haired pensioner guilty of three counts of threatening to destroy property, three counts of sending indecent mail and one of incitement to commit burglary.

Forster was cleared of three counts of allegedly damaging neighbours' property.

Updated : 15:25, Thursday 9th Aug.