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As cars approached her house, Margaret Walker found herself growing anxious.
Sleep became difficult, and anxiety attacks plagued the 72-year-old.
It followed a long-standing dispute with a former tenant that had escalated into a blackmail threat, leaving Margaret and her husband, Jeffrey Walker, fearing for their safety.
Jeffrey was frail and suffering from multiple medical problems at the time. He had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.
Margaret recalled that Jeffrey had “locked horns” with Jonathon Parker, the tenant of their rental property, and the two men were like “red rags to a bull”.
As Jeffrey struggled with handling the conflict, Margaret said she took over managing the tenancy.
“My husband was not one to back down on anything. I know Jeff got angry several times; the guy was winding him up,” she told NZME.
“He [Parker] videoed everything you did. He pushed his phone into Jeff’s face on one occasion, and Jeff pushed it out of the way.”
“Jeff was 74, he was never violent with him [Parker]. He was aggressive verbally, but only in response to what he was given.”
Parker had moved into their North Canterbury rental in August 2023.
The tenancy appeared to have been without any significant problems for the first year.
However, it became problematic after the couple said they wanted to sell up, as Jeff’s health was deteriorating quickly.
The fixed-term tenancy to August last year ended five months early by mutual consent.
Following that, the couple made a claim to the Tenancy Tribunal for compensation for damage and cleaning.
Then matters took a turn for the worse.
In an email Parker went on to send to the couple, he claimed to have uploaded videos taken during numerous altercations with her husband, saying he had given out their names and address to people.
He also claimed they had admitted to insurance fraud during the final house inspection, and said he would send the information to all insurance companies in the South Island.
Margaret said Parker’s fraud allegations were fictitious.
His email also stated: “I’m not playing games with you anymore, return all of our bond back and none of this will happen.”
In August last year, the Tenancy Tribunal ordered Parker to pay the couple $700 of the $1500 bond owed to him for outside work, damage and cleaning of the property.
Tribunal adjudicator Ross Armstrong accepted that after the Walkers indicated they intended to sell the house, Parker’s behaviour towards them was “truculent”.
He appeared to go out of his way to make things difficult for the landlords, Armstrong wrote in his decision.
“I am not inclined to prefer the tenants’ evidence over the landlords’ evidence in these circumstances.”
Meanwhile, Margaret had made a complaint to the police about Parker’s email.
He was charged with blackmail, to which he went on to admit.
This week, Margaret was in the Christchurch District Court to see Parker convicted and sentenced.
Jeffrey was not there for closure. He died on May 13.
Margaret Walker spoke in court of the emotional and mental harm the couple had suffered as a result of Parker’s correspondence.
“The effect on me is that I became anxious when any car approached the house, and started to shake even when I had to talk about the issues raised in the email, even though I know they are false and can be shown to be so.
“I feared that strangers would arrive at our door to harass us, or worse.
“I was totally devastated by this email and had trouble sleeping and suffered anxiety attacks and sleep deprivation with the worry of the contents.”
Walker was distressed by Parker’s false claims about Jeffrey and said the email had exacerbated her husband’s condition.
Parker’s lawyer, Andrew McKenzie, told the court the offending occurred against the backdrop of a very difficult relationship.
“Although it should not have happened, it was confined to the dispute,” he submitted.
“He was not demanding money beyond what he felt that he was owed.”
In sentencing Parker, Judge Jane Farish told him he had more than overstepped the mark.
“The email you sent was really aggressive and bullying of a woman who was your landlord.
“Blackmail is an insidious offence; often it is done in private, as you did with false claims that they had committed fraud. It has caused Mrs Walker immense harm.
“Unfortunately for her, her situation has worsened; she has lost her husband.
“You have let yourself down; you let your emotions get the better of you,” the judge told Parker.
She sentenced him to two months’ community detention.
After sentencing, Margaret Walker said she was disappointed by the outcome.
“It is finished now, and I have closure of sorts and can move on with my life,” she told NZME.
“[But] my late husband would have been appalled by the sentence dished out after the vicious blackmail written, causing over 12 months of stress and heartache.”
