A same-sex couple have told how they have been forced out of their home after being terrorised by a campaign of homophobic abuse from a neighbour. Rachel Roustoby and Alex Houlden, both 23, say they have received letters stating that “dykes don’t belong in the area” and that they need to move out of their two-bedroom flat.
The couple even had “Merry Xmas fags” written on their front door, alongside a bag of dog poo, on Christmas Day and a used condom was once left on their door handle. Rachel says local residents have even come up to her in the street and told her that it is “wrong to be gay”, leaving them “terrified” of staying in the area.
The couple have repeatedly reported the incidents to police, who say they are being treated as a hate crime.
Rachel said: “My partner and I have been left terrified. I have only more recently come out as gay so I’ve not had to deal with this sort of homophobic stuff before but my partner came out when she was around 13. Alex has been beaten up in the past for being gay so she is terrified by this and her mental health has deteriorated. Can you imagine getting hate for the person you are in love with? We feel a little bit forced to leave, we were planning to buy a house together in a few years and stay here until then.”
Rachel says that she first started receiving nose complaints from her neighbours in September last year and then realised her parcels were going missing. The couple said they then discovered rubbish was being left outside of their property and they nearly got fined for fly-tipping, because their garbage was being dumped in bushes.
Rachel says she then received a note stating that someone didn’t like the couple’s lifestyle, but they were left confused and didn’t realise the note was homophobic. But on another occasion, they arrived home to a used condom on their door handle and were sent two more notes which read “dykes don’t belong in this area” and “f**k off dykes.”
Since then, their parcels have still been stolen and Rachel was approached by a local resident and was told that it was “wrong to be gay.”
After that incident, Rachel says there is now a “constant array of things” happening to the couple – including when someone wrote “Merry Xmas fags” on Christmas Day.
Rachel said: “I’ve rang my housing association in tears. How can people say this sort of stuff, when we are in this society? It’s a constant array of things.”
Rachel first moved into the property around three years ago and she lived there with her ex-boyfriend. She then continued living in the property after they split up and Alex moved into the flat in December 2023. Rachel says that before Alex moved into the property, she rarely spoke to her neighbours but said she never had any problems with them.
She said: “I think they were fine before, I didn’t really talk to them. I usually kept myself to myself so I never really spoke to anyone as I’m quite introverted myself. My neighbours seemed to be okay but I didn’t really speak to them. We didn’t think this would happen in such a lovely area, as I had lived here for three years with no issues.”
Rachel says she has “no idea” who could be behind the homophobic threats, but thinks it could be around eight people.
She said: “I have no idea who this could be. I received a full-on paragraph saying that my lifestyle wasn’t accepted and that eight people were waiting for us to leave. It could be eight others. It could be less or it could be more.”
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