Pensioner Barbara Simpson, 60, was jailed for three months yesterday for flouting a ban on feeding birds in her garden at Preston, near Weymouth, Dorset. She was told by a judge that the time had come when it was necessary to protect her neighbours from her obsessive compulsion.

She was committed to prison for continually ignoring council injunctions and promises to court not to put out food on her giant 24ft square bird table. Sentencing came after her fifth appearance at Winchester Crown Court this year since Weymouth and Portland Borough Council was granted the injunction, which she admitted breaking more than 20 times.