The judges refused to free the 81-year-old immediately

Dorothy Evans, from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire was jailed for six months for harassment and breaching her Asbo.

While agreeing to cut her sentence, two judges at London's Criminal Appeal Court refused to free her immediately.

She was in a wheelchair with a plaster over her right eye, and the court was told she had been attacked in prison.

The pensioner appeared in court smartly dressed in a bright pink suit and white sun hat, and listened to her case through headphones provided for the hard of hearing.

Old age is not a licence to disregard the law Mr Justice Underhill

David Watson, for Evans, told the court she had suffered the "bleeding injury" when another prisoner at Gloucestershire's Eastwood Park Prison had "burst" into a corridor as Evans returned from the prison's medical centre.

Mr Watson told the judges "frail and vulnerable" Evans was "desperately frightened" in prison.

Mr Justice Underhill said he accepted the pensioner was "particularly vulnerable" because of her age and poor health.

But he said Evans had put her "thoroughly decent" neighbours, Angela and Roberto Casa, under "huge pressure and strain", and had not shown them an ounce of sympathy, or expressed any regret.

"Old age is not a licence to disregard the law," he said.

She will be home in four weeks and my hell will start all over again Angela Casa, neighbour

Mr Justice Underhill said it was only in the most exceptional cases that the court would jail people in their 80s.

However, when Evans was given the opportunity to stop harassing her neighbours, she had missed an interview with a probation officer, and had instead travelled to America for a week to visit her friend.

That behaviour had given Judge Roderick Denyer QC almost no choice but to send her to prison for her flagrant defiance, said Mr Justice Underhill.

But taking into account Evans' age, and the effect the "clang of the prison gates" had already had on her, he said he was prepared to shorten her sentence.

Mrs Casa was visibly shaken when told about the court's decision.

She said "I'm very disappointed.

"It's taken them two years to get her to court and now she will be home in four weeks and my hell will start all over again."

During the trial Mrs Casa and her husband had described several neighbourly disputes with Evans, including rows over parking and flooding problems.

A jury heard how the pensioner had accused Mrs Casa of being a prostitute and hit her with her walking stick.

She also told Mrs Casa's 13-year-old daughter she was a witch and that she would kill her dog.

Electronic tagging

Before she was sentenced by Judge Denyer, Evans failed to appear in court on 16 April.

The court heard she was being examined in hospital after feeling unwell.

However Judge Denyer said the pensioner was "deliberately frustrating the processes" of the court, and threatened an arrest warrant unless she turned up in court the following day.

Evans was originally told she must serve at least three months of her six-month sentence.

The latest ruling means she still has weeks to serve before she is given the chance of early release on electronic tagging.