PLUCKY grandmother Jose Busby hit back this week at young tormentors who have been making her life a misery.

Mrs Busby (67), who lives in Gainsborough Close, Bemerton Heath, says she has suffered a torrent of abuse and harassment from a group of youths on the estate for some 18 months.

And she reached the end of her tether when, in the latest incident, a large stone was thrown through a window of her flat, just a few steps from where she was sitting.

Within hours of the window smashing she contacted the Journal to say she wanted to go public and make people aware of the misery she is having to endure.

She said she hoped the step would encourage others on the estate to speak out as well - and form a united front against the troublemakers.

Mrs Busby, who is a retired catering manager, told the Journal: I know it seems like it's just somebody having a go, but I have had a lot of harassment and I'm not just going to sit back here and do nothing."

"The police came out but they said they could do nothing because I didn't actually see who it was," she said.

However Mrs Busby told the Journal that she was well aware of the culprits' identities, as they are the same people who had been terrorising her and others for more than a year and a half.

Other incidents include being "bumped from side to side", threatened with foul and abusive language, having a laser pen shone in her eyes, pebbles thrown at her back and threats to kill her dog.

But despite these events Mrs Busby said she was not scared and would not be intimated by the youths.

She said she had spoken to the police on numerous occasions but that it did not seem to be making a difference.

"I have very little faith in the police because nothing ever comes of it," she said.

She added: "I can't understand how the police can justify being a police force with responsibility to the people because the only responsibility they seem to have on this estate is telling victims to sit down, shut up and be quiet."

A police spokesman told the Journal that they are well aware of the problems on Bemerton Heath and are involved in measures to tackle the situation.

These include issuing antisocial behaviour contracts, installing plain clothes officers on various bus routes through the estate, monthly meetings with the Bemerton Heath Action Group and assigning one of Salisbury's new police community support officers to patrol the area.

He said: "We have conducted some operations against the behaviour of youths on the Heath and we will continue to conduct operations there, targeting the criminal and antisocial behaviour of youths in that area.

"We would also encourage anybody on the Heath to report immediately any examples of criminal or antisocial behaviour."