Mother jailed after disturbing neighbours by playing Ed Sheeran song

Sonia Bryce blighted next-door neighbour Clare Tidmarsh's peace with the incessant din from her home in Howe Crescent, Willenhall.

And "the straw that broke the camel's back" came when Miss Bryce played the same Ed Sheeran ballad on a loop for about half an hour.

Mrs Tidmarsh, her husband and five kids endured a "wholly unacceptable level of disturbance through loud noise involving music, shouting, swearing and banging - time and time again - emanating from Miss Bryce's home", said Judge Philip Gregory.

Miss Bryce's landlords, Walsall Housing Group Ltd, secured a court order barring her from creating a nuisance or annoyance.

But she had been repeatedly arrested for breaching that injunction and was handed a six-week jail term last December.

She was released in February, but once again found herself in hot water after Mrs Tidmarsh complained.

The case came before Judge Gregory at Walsall County Court as Miss Bryce's landlords demanded that she be jailed again.

Mrs Tidmarsh said her life had been plagued by "numerous comings and goings at her neighbour's property" - with continuous "loud music, shouting and swearing".

She had kept a detailed "diary of events" cataloging the racket from her next door neighbour's home, said the judge.

She also installed CCTV "in an attempt to control the behaviour of Miss Bryce".

The judge said Miss Bryce had "displayed ungovernable animosity" to her neighbour and had committed four further breaches of the injunction in February.

The "straw that broke the camel's back" involved Miss Bryce "playing the same song over and over again", he added.

The offending Ed Sheeran track was played without cease for about half an hour before Miss Bryce finally left in a cab.

She denied playing the music, insisting that "she doesn't even like" the soulful bard's songs.

The judge, however, rejected her evidence. "I am satisfied...that this occurred, and in behaving in that way Miss Bryce breached the order," he said.

Mrs Tidmarsh told the judge she "could no longer cope living next door to Miss Bryce and her family and her continuous stream of visitors".

She felt driven to take the drastic step of quitting her semi-detached home and renting it out to get away from her neighbour.

Miss Bryce accused Mrs Tidmarsh of "goading" her and claimed she was only moving out because she needed a bigger home for her family.

But the judge said the Tidmarsh family were "perfectly decent and respectable people" who had the misfortune to live next door to Miss Bryce.

Pleading not to be jailed, Miss Bryce said: "I can't be taken away from my kids' care".

But, after describing her as "over-emotional", the judge told her: "You can and you will be."

Jailing her for eight weeks, he added: "You must learn that you should behave as a reasonable and responsible adult, and not make life for your neighbours the misery that you have".

Condemning the "contempt" she had shown for the court order, he concluded: "You have displayed nothing but violent animosity towards your neighbour, and I am quite convinced that you do not care.

"Everybody is entitled to live in a degree of peace and quiet with the usual give and take of society, but you do not behave like a civilised person, and you have got to learn that you will".