Japanese housewife nabbed for noisy attack on neighbour

AFP/Yahoo ^ | Wed Dec 10, 9:00 AM ET

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Japanese housewife nabbed for noisy attack on neighbour

Wed Dec 10, 9:00 AM ET

TOKYO (AFP) - A middle-aged Japanese housewife has been arrested for bombarding her neighbour around the clock for seven months with high-decibel sounds from a dozen radios and alarm clocks, police said.

Kayoko Deguchi, 47, who lives in the ancient city of Nara, was held on suspicion of assault and injury because the neighbour, a 53-year-old housewife, suffered from a chronic headache, insomnia and ringing in the ears.

Deguchi's vendetta may have dated back 10 years, when the victim's family were playing with a ball and it hit her car, police said Wednesday.

"The suspect admitted that she had played radios. But she claimed to have caused no injury," a spokesman for the Nara city police department said.

Deguchi ignored repeated demands from the victim and other neighbours to stop the barrage of sound until late September when police stepped in.

After she re-launched the assault on a smaller scale, police seized six radios and nine alarm clocks from her house in November and finally arrested her on Tuesday.

Since the spat over the ball, she has quarrelled with the neighbour over petty matters every time they met, the police official said.

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AFP thought this photo would make a good segue. It doesn't.

A child holds a big alarm clock. A middle-aged Japanese housewife has been arrested for bombarding her neighbour around the clock for seven months with high-decibel sounds from a dozen radios and alarm clocks, police said.(AFP/File/Mychele Daniau)