A couple seeking a slower pace of life moved from Surrey to rural Pembrokeshire in 2018 with the aim of renovating and rewilding. However, a neighbour from hell quickly disrupted their plans for peace with “petrol bombs” and menacing death threats which drove the couple to “the brink of suicide”.

Richard Burton and Amanda Hutton packed up their Surrey home to start a new life in Wales. Despite their first year being all they could have hoped for, their lives were turned upside down when a seemingly amicable couple bought 36 acres of land next door. “They took us out for a meal and they were very friendly,” Mr Burton told the Daily Mail. The neighbours, Cassie Collins, 35, and Francis Collins, 36, a former paratrooper, had started off friendly, leading to Mr Burton and Ms Hutton buying five acres of land from them for £25,000.

However, the relationship between the neighbours took a turn for the worse when the Collins' took the money, yet refused to give them access to the land. In response, a lawsuit was filed for completion which is when the “terrorising” began.

“We felt groomed in a way, it was all orchestrated,” Mr Burton explained. “It was as much as we could afford to give, at that point - we were debt-free with no mortgage, living the dream.”

The couple said the abuse was relentless. Mr Collins sent over 50 threatening emails, which included setting their home on fire, and eventually threats to kill his neighbours.

One email read: “You will lose everything you love and I will make you watch.”

Another said: “You're about to have the worst week of your life, lol, I'm so excited. You're facing bankruptcy, and worse. And you don't even know why yet, lmao. Ya lost.”

The emails became so frequent and terrifying that it drove Ms Hutton to the brink of suicide twice.

Mr Burton explained how the couple lived in fear every day that something would happen to their daughters, adding that they were “trapped”.

“They terrorised us pretty much the whole year - every minute of every day you wondered what was going to happen next,” he added.

In March 2020, Mr Collins threw a petrol bomb into their home. A court in Wales heard details of the attack. Mr Collins pleaded guilty to stalking involving fear of violence or serious alarm or distress on the day he was due to stand trial, DevonLive reports.

He had spent 202 days in prison on remand and then 46 days on an electronically monitored tag prior to his trial date, and the recorder said he intended to impose a sentence which meant he would be released imminently. Giving him a 10 per cent discount for his guilty plea recorder Mills sentenced him to 425 days in prison.

Mr Collins also allegedly walked around with crossbows, wore balaclavas and stood at the fence staring.

After mediation, the neighbours came to an agreement which gave Mr Burton and Ms Hutton six months to purchase the land. The Collins' then relocated to Cullompton in late 2020.

But, on September 11, 2021, Mr and Mrs Collins were found dead in their Devon home after killing themselves in a suicide pact.

Mr Collins had suffered from severe psychotic depression and had previously attempted to take his own life, while his wife endured chronic pain that often left her bedbound.

An inquest held into the deaths at Exeter’s Coroners Court on June 5, 2023, heard that three of their five dogs were also found dead at their home in Station Road, on September 11, 2021. Police later discovered their two larger dogs, Dobermans, had recently been put to sleep at the vets after claiming they had been involved in an attack.