A WOMAN described as the neighbour from hell was jailed for two years after smashing a bottle over the head of a man in her flat.

Alexandra Woolnough, also known as Al Capone, attacked Robert Yeeles with a bottle as he sat drinking in her Brighton home.

The 42-year-old Russian claimed she attacked Mr Yeeles in self defence.

A jury at Hove Crown Court took less than an hour to convict her of the unprovoked attack.

Capone became known as the neighbour from hell after painting her former home in Worthing pink.

She was jailed for two years and ordered to pay £3,000 in court costs and another £1,000 compensation to Mr Yeeles.

She assaulted Robert Yeeles as they sat drinking in her flat.

He went back to her flat after meeting her in the street following a night out in the Kemp Town area of the city.

Gavin Pottinger for the Crown said the attack on September 8 last year was out of the blue.

“Suddenly, without any warning the defendant hit him on the left side of his face,” Mr Pottinger said.

“He stood up and was bleeding heavily.”

Mr Yeeles went outside to call 999 before returning to the flat to collect his bag when he saw Woolnough mopping up his blood, the court heard. He blacked out in the street before making his own way to the nearby Royal Sussex Hospital where he was treated overnight, Mr Pottinger said.

He needed stitches across his nose and around his eye.

“Officers came from Worthing believing she was the complainant,” Mr Pottinger said.

She told police nothing had happened and they went on their way, he added.

“In her formal interview with police, she chose to say nothing.

“The defence to the charge is she doesn’t deny hitting him in the face and it was in self defence.

“Smashing someone in the face with a bottle is extreme force.

“If she was forced to such desperate measures, you might think this would be something she would tell police about.”

Woolnough hit the headlines back in 2015 when she caused outrage in Worthing after painting her 140-year-old former lifeboat house home a garish shade of pink.

Later that month she told The Argus painting heritage house pink was a cry for help.

Earlier that year she had been slapped with an an antisocial behaviour order after drunkenly abusing neighbours and blasting loud music at late-night parties.

She is believed to have links to Russian royalty and shares the first two names with a Russian Grand Duchess who died in exile in 1960.