Landlady Eileen Shayler who lived with a man with an antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) for more than two years, yesterday told of her decision to evict him.

Mrs Shayler, 78, had known the troubled alcoholic for years after her son became friends with him, and agreed to take Leslie Belcher in to her home.

Despite the 50-year-old’s court appearances for breaching his Asbo, neighbours’ complaints about his intimidating behaviour and repeated visits from the police, the pensioner insisted her lodger didn’t cause her any problems.

She said: “I have known him most of his life, he was a friend of my eldest son and that was why I let him come. I knew his mother and step-father.

“Other people only saw him outside the house, but I said ‘he does no harm to me, he’s quite good and helpful around the house’.

“I did see another side of him. They say you have to live with someone to know them.”

Mrs Shayler, who retired in 1993 to care for her partner Mr Loveridge, said Belcher made himself useful and had a thoughtful side.

“He did little jobs for me and tidied up for the next door neighbour,” she explained.

But despite his kind gestures, Mrs Shayler acknowledged Belcher needed help.

She said: “I used to say to him that what he needed was to grow up. He was not a bad person, he was a stupid person.”

Belcher’s two-year Asbo, handed to him in October 2010, bans him from drinking in public, congregating with anyone other than his family in Magdalen Road or the front garden of 44 Magdalen Road, and using intimidating language or behaviour.

Not everyone was willing to give Belcher the benefit of the doubt and the police and council officers visited Mrs Shayler three times when Belcher was last in prison to ask her to kick her problem tenant out, but she always refused.

“I was under pressure from the police and the council to get rid of him,” she said. “But I had no problems with him personally and he was quite helpful to me.”

But for all her patience, there came a point when even the understanding landlady had to take action. When her partner’s carers, who visit the Magdalen Road house twice a day, made a complaint about Belcher and refused to return until he left, Mrs Shayler had to make a difficult decision.

She said: “When it happened I was not there, but I said to him ‘you’ve overstepped the mark now and you’ve got to go’.”

A spokesman for Oxford City Council said: “We were made aware that the premises were associated with repeated cases of antisocial behaviour and we assisted Mrs Shayler with advice and support to help evict the tenant responsible.”