AN Edmonton family have been cleared of being neighbours from hell.

Jiordanis Vrochidis, 27, his mother Mary Georgiou, 48, and stepfather Ioannis Georgiou, 53, faced numerous charges over a series of alleged incidents involving their next-door neighbours in Adlington Close.

Rodney and Stella Harbord alleged their neighbours had been nothing but trouble.

They accused Mrs Georgiou of swinging a meat cleaver at Mr Harbord's head and poking him in the arm with a barbecue skewer.

Other allegations included dumping bleach on their lawn, cutting a clothes line and banging on walls in the early hours.

Mr and Mrs Harbord also claimed that Messrs Vrochidis and Georgiou had both threatened to cut their throats.

But the jury were later told that it was Mr and Mrs Georgiou and Mr Vrochidis who had been subjected to harassment.

Giving evidence Mr Vrochidis said other neighbours joined in the intimidation of his family.

He said that on one occasion one man told him: 'I'm going to smash your face in if I see you around.'

On September 9, he said he had got off a bus and was approached by one of the neighbours wielding a crow bar who said he was in a 'dangerous place to be walking home' before hitting him in the stomach with the weapon.

He went on to say that Mrs Harbord had threatened his mother by saying: 'There's a rope around your neck.'

He dismissed as an 'absolute fabrication' claims that the Georgious had been 'acting like madmen' in their back garden.

All three were found not guilty of putting Mr Harbord in fear of violence between July 1 and October 5.

Both men were cleared of putting Mrs Harbord in fear of violence on the same dates and of making threats to kill Mr Harbord on July 9.

Mrs Georgiou and her son were cleared of making threats to kill Mrs Harbord on September 6.

Mr Georgiou was cleared of threats to kill another neighbour, Kevin Smith, on September 6.

And Mr Vrochidis was found not guilty of causing criminal damage to Mrs Harbord's window on October 5.