A nightmare neighbour who made a yoga teacher’s life in a posh suburb a ‘misery’ before lying down in the dirt to prevent her garden being fenced off has been ordered to pay £15,000 in court bills.
‘Irrational and aggressive’ dancer and singer Sandra Eveno fell out with her neighbour Kristyna Robinson after moving into the flat below hers in West Hampstead, north London, in 2015.
The pair clashed over the use of their shared garden and claims Ms Robinson held noisy yoga sessions upstairs, with Ms Eveno embarking on a ‘deliberate campaign’ of nuisance and annoyance which a judge said had made Ms Robinson’s family’s lives ‘almost intolerable.’
Over seven years, Ms Eveno subjected her neighbour to incidents of ‘almost unremitting shouting and screaming’ and made repeated false allegations of criminality to Ms Robinson’s yoga centre employers and police.
On one occasion, when contractors came to sub-divide the shared garden of their flats in a doomed attempt to end the row, Ms Eveno was seen lying down in the dirt to prevent a fence being erected before she attacked a worker with a branch.
Now, after a long battle through the courts, Ms Eveno’s landlord, the London Borough of Camden, has won an eviction order after a four-day trial before Judge Alan Saggerson.
Giving judgment at Central London County Court, the judge said that the ‘irrational’ Ms Eveno had developed an ‘almost phobic’ dislike of her neighbour and deliberately targeted her with anti-social behaviour.
Finding she had committed repeated acts of ‘nuisance and annoyance’ which she would ‘inevitably’ repeat if they stayed neighbours, he made a possession order in favour of the council, as well as ordering Ms Eveno to pay up to £15,000 towards its lawyers’ bills.
![The court heard how Kristyna Robinson (pictured), a practitioner of yoga, was subjected to false allegations of criminality](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/29/10/94629553-14337025-image-m-7_1738147125794.jpg)
The court heard how Kristyna Robinson (pictured), a practitioner of yoga, was subjected to false allegations of criminality
‘Irrational and aggressive’ dancer and singer Sandra Eveno, pictured, fell out with her neighbour Ms Robinson
Ms Eveno moved into the flat below Ms Robinson in West Hampstead, north London, in 2015
‘For some reason, the defendant has taken an unjustified and strong dislike to Ms Robinson,’ he said, adding that the hatred was ‘overwhelming, intense and irrational.’
The court heard Ms Robinson, a practitioner of Iyengar yoga, had lived in the upstairs flat in Sarre Road since 2002 with Ms Eveno – a dancer, singer and photographer – moving in downstairs in 2015.
The council’s barrister, Desmond Kilcoyne, said there had been a ‘lack of clarity’ about the tenants’ rights over the shared garden, resulting in a dispute.
Despite trying to mediate, the council was unable to solve the neighbours’ row, leading to a decision to divide the plot in half by erecting a fence in April 2019.
However, fencing the garden did not solve the bad blood, with Ms Eveno lying down to prevent it being installed and the council going on to apply for a possession order on the grounds that she had caused years of ‘nuisance and annoyance’ to her neighbour.
In his judgment, the judge said that Ms Eveno had behaved in an ‘uncontrolled’ manner over the years, finding she had committed many acts of deliberate nuisance.
She was ‘prone to uncontrolled ranting at her neighbours and the world at large,’ he said, while she found it ‘almost impossible to control her emotions,’ partially down to physical and mental health issues.
Among the incidents, the judge found that Ms Eveno had called one of Ms Robinson’s sons an ‘animal’ and made ‘grunting animal noises’ in his direction.
On another occasion, she had ‘snarled’ at one of the sons, before confronting Ms Robinson in a ‘frighteningly aggressive and uncontrolled manner.’
She had repeatedly falsely accused the Robinsons of being involved in gang violence and drug dealing, calling Ms Robinson herself a ‘f***ing disgusting woman.’
After a long battle through the courts, Ms Eveno’s landlord, the London Borough of Camden, has won an eviction order after a four-day trial
Yoga teacher Ms Robinson pictured outside Central London County Court
Over seven years, Ms Eveno (pictured) subjected her neighbour to incidents of ‘almost unremitting shouting and screaming’
In 2022, she had even contacted a local yoga centre where Ms Robinson works, repeating the false allegations of criminality about the Robinson family.
She had also banged on the ceiling of her downstairs flat ‘without any justification or purpose other than to annoy Ms Robinson’ – her claim that it was in response to dog urine coming through the ceiling was ‘irrational and rather ludicrous.’
The judge said the council’s decision to divide the garden with a fence had only resulted in a violent confrontation, with Ms Eveno objecting and trying to prevent contractors from putting it up.
‘It’s quite clear that the defendant lay on the ground to prevent the fence being installed,’ he said in his judgment.
‘She also brandished a branch of a bush or tree at the contractor and struck the contractor with that branch.’
The behaviour continued for years, said the judge, including an incident last July when Ms Eveno had brandished a stick at her neighbour and ‘caught her’ with it.
In her defence, Ms Eveno had denied that most of the incidents happened, claiming that video and audio evidence had been doctored.
Some of her actions had been deliberately provoked by Ms Robinson, who had held noisy yoga classes upstairs, she also claimed.
But rejecting her defence, Judge Saggerson said that, while Ms Eveno was ‘prone to paranoia and uncontrolled tearful outbursts… it needs to be said, we are here dealing with dry tears… she is unfocused and inconsistent and not a reliable historian’.
And while Ms Robinson’s behaviour was not always ‘impeccable,’ it was ‘nothing like the extreme extent of the behaviour engaged in by Ms Eveno,’ he added.
The judge described Ms Eveno’s hatred for her neighbour as ‘overwhelming, intense and irrational’
Ms Eveno was ordered to pay up to £15,000 towards lawyer bills
He said 20 specific incidents of nuisance and annoyance brought to court by the council were ‘examples of a much broader course of conduct undertaken by the defendant and targeted principally, but not entirely, against Mrs Robinson.’
‘I am satisfied that the 20 specific incidents were appropriately selected as individual episodes that accurately describe a pattern of behaviour of irrational shouting, screaming, and making false allegations to third parties, such as the police, Ms Robinson’s employers and the world at large.
‘I am entirely satisfied that the effect of that conduct has been such as to make the Robinson family’s lives, and particularly Ms Robinson’s life, a complete misery for the last seven years.
‘I am satisfied that if this cannot be stopped in some way, such continuing nuisance and annoyance are going to have an appreciable adverse effect on Ms Robinson’s peace of mind and indeed her own mental health.’
He said a possession order was necessary and that to suspend it on condition that Ms Eveno behave properly would be ‘setting her up to fail’ as repeat behaviour was ‘inevitable,’ given that an interim injunction had not stopped her so far.
He made a possession order and ordered that Ms Eveno pay towards Camden’s lawyers’ bills.
Mr Kilcoyne, for the council, confirmed in court that it would only be pursuing her for fees up to a maximum of £15,000.
He said the council had for several years been offering to rehouse Ms Eveno in another two-bed flat nearby and that she could now go there.