A councillor has gone on trial accused of breaching a restraining order against his neighbour.

Brendan Murphy, 73, Cheshire East councillor for Tytherington, was given a two-year order in April 2012 forbidding any contact with neighbours Christopher and Margaret Boyd.

It followed a conviction for harassment.

Mr Murphy, of Hilton Road, Disley, was fined £625 in May last year after admitting breaching the order by speaking to Mr Boyd on November 12 and 13, 2013.

But an appeal against the conviction by Mr Murphy was later upheld by a Crown Court judge on the grounds that his plea was made on an ‘equivocal’ basis.

Mr Murphy has now gone on trial for breaching the order at Macclesfield Magistrates court.

Neil Audley, prosecuting, said: “He went out of his way to speak to his neighbour.

“It’s not a trivial conversation, they are offensive remarks about him and his wife.

“There was no reasonable excuse, he just wanted to cause trouble.”

Christopher Boyd said he placed an audio recorder on his fence and camcorder on his landing window to record Mr Murphy speaking to him.

The court was shown video footage which it is claimed shows Mr Murphy talking to Mr Boyd while he was working on his garage roof.

Mr Boyd told the court: “He said ‘You can do a lot of peeping from up there, you peeping Tom’.

“He asked me how the ‘bald coot’ was going on.

“He calls my wife that because he said she is losing her hair.

“A few minutes later he came back and started talking to me about cutting the hedge, saying that anything I cut off should be left on his drive.

“The next day when I was working on the roof again he said ‘be careful you don’t fall of that ladder, I’m not going to give you the kiss of life’.”

PC Jackson told the court Mr Boyd reported numerous times that Mr Murphy had spoken to him.

In an interview with PC Jackson, Mr Murphy said he spoke to Mr Boyd because he was provoked.

In a recording of the interview played to the court, he said: “On the first day, I was getting something out of my car and as I came round the corner I saw Mr Boyd on the roof. He was staring at me in a provocative, threatening way. I said ‘mind you don’t fall off that roof, I’m not going to be able to give you the kiss of life’.

“On the second day when I came out of my house he was still on the roof and he was staring at me.

“I’ve had a continuous campaign of harassment against me.

“I don’t deny speaking to him but I was provoked.”

The trial continues on Thursday, April 30.

Proceeding