Your home is your castle and it's the one place you should be able to feel safe, especially if you have young children.

So I can understand the fear of the mothers who live in the Hurstwood block of flats in Findon Road, Whitehawk, last week when they discovered used needles had been pushed through their letterboxes.

"We could catch HIV or anything from it," said Emma Macdonald, who has a 16-month-old daughter.

"It's horrible… we know who the person is but the police haven't done anything. I asked him to keep his dogs quiet one day after they'd been barking in the early hours of the morning. The next morning, he came outside my front door and howled like a dog. I'm terrified."

Another mother in the same block of flats is "terrified to live in my own home".

Sussex Police said officers had ensured the safe removal of the needles and "discussed the circumstances with the occupant". There was no arrest.

So that's it then. Emma is left to face the consequences of asking a neighbour to be considerate.

And he has taken what seems to be the normal route these days of intimidation and revenge rather than apologising and promising to keep his dogs quiet at night.

His behaviour is part of a disintegration of society from within, an abdication of individual responsibility that makes a mockery of David Cameron's Big Society.

Once Margaret Thatcher's policy of individualism replaced the greater good of society, the individual had won and society has lost.

Human rights have trumped - but it seems some human rights are more equal than others. Emma and the other young mothers who live in the flats appear in our brave new world to come second to a man who is free to intimidate them. Shame on us.