Poison Pen Letter Campaign Lacks Poison

Now, when I click on a story on the Daily Mail news website headlined woman plagued by ten year poison pen letter campaign I am expecting a good dose of sensational detail, a few jaw-dropping moments and plenty of opportunities to shake my head and tut about what the world is coming to.

Am I right or am I right. I don’t like to see anyone suffer but if you start reading a poison pen news article you expect there to be a little poison in that pen.

Instead what I found was Clare Campbell, the victim of this so called poison penner, had received a grand total of just ten missives in ten years and the worst they got were ‘we don’t like the colour of your plant pots’.

I mean really.

Clare – who incidentally wrote this article herself, which immediately raised suspicions with me as it suggests she is in on the Daily Mail’s circle and so could possibly pass any old tripe by the editor – says she feels deeply upset by this campaign of abuse and senses this person is watching her every move.

The London resident continues that she believes it is one of her neighbours behind the letters but she cannot work out which one. What makes it even more sinister, in her mind, is that this person is purposely posting these letters from several miles away, so they do not carry the local post mark.

The first letter, according to Clare, arrived when they first moved into the property on Wandsworth Heath ten years ago. In fact it was tucked under their car’s windscreen wiper. It read “Why did you come here anyway. You should have stayed where you were”.

I can’t help thinking, is this the best they can do?

The other examples Clare gives us of these ‘chilling’ letters are “your front drive is an unattractive mess” and we don’t like the colour of your children’s bikes.

Clare believes the letters are written by an educated person because of the correct spelling and grammar. If you ask me they sound like they are written by a child, or a highly unimaginative adult.

Let’s face it if you really want to wind someone up and make them feel unwelcome in their neighbourhood you are going to do a little more than comment on the colour of their flower pots, aren’t you?

What is also mysterious is that after ten years Clare still has no idea who the letter writer is. You would have thought she would have taken some steps to try and find out who they were. I don’t think I could have let this go on so long without doing something about it.

One Daily Mail reader commented on the story that it is probably Clare behind the letters. So are we really to think this is all a little bit of attention seeking? Hmmm.