A sex therapist’s four-year legal battle in a case dubbed the UK’s ‘most upmarket eviction row’ has finally ended after she was handed a rare form of restraining order by a civil judge.
Patricia Ramshaw – who styles herself Lady Pea – became involved in a feud with the wealthy owners of the £3,500-a- month Grade II listed Victorian property in 2021.
She claimed the Norfolk property had a range of problems that made it uninhabitable, while the Cator family argued she had breached the terms of her tenancy by keeping a menagerie of dozens of animals there including horses, pigs and sheep.
Lady Pea was finally evicted in June 2023 after a bitter legal wrangle but continued to make civil claims against the owners.
These have now come to an end after she was issued with a extended civil restraint order (ECRO), which prevents ‘vexatious’ litigation. Fewer than 200 are currently enforced in England and Wales.
Judge Karen Walden-Smith stated in a withering judgment that the courts had been ‘misused’ by the constant litigation, which were used as a ‘weapon’ against the family.
In a statement made to the court, Lady Pea said: ‘I understand what you have said today and really have no intention at all to pursue anything else with Mr [Sam] Cator.’
The Cator family – who have a long-running association with the county and have held influential posts such as High Sheriff – were contacted for a comment.
Hostilities began in November 2021 when Lady Pea started to rent the property in Ranworth, in the picturesque Norfolk Broads.
She paid a year’s rent up front before complaining that the house was riddled with damp and mould, was ‘freezing cold’ because of the lack of central heating, and was uninhabitable.
The Cators eventually offered for her to move out and have her rent refunded but Lady Pea – whose title was bought by an ex-boyfriend as part of a burlesque act in which she used the name – didn’t agree to the terms and the arrangement collapsed.
At a subsequent property tribunal, the Cators argued Lady Pea had been given permission to keep two dogs but had three, as well as pigs, two horses, eight ducks and 20 sheep.
In further bizarre evidence aired during the hearing, it was alleged that Jane Cator, mother of landlord Sam and a deputy lieutenant of Norfolk, had spied on Lady Pea from the tower of nearby Ranworth Church.
Mrs Cator admitted frequenting the tower but insisted she was not using it to keep an eye on the property or its occupant.
She also accused Lady Pea of allowing a pig to destroy the property’s garden.
The tribunal ruled in favour of the Cators, with Judge Stephen Evans saying: ‘These proceedings provide a salutary lesson for those prospective landlords and tenants who embark on entering into a tenancy without defining the ambit of the demise and without agreeing all relevant terms of the tenancy before occupation is taken up.’
The case ended up in court again a few months later, with Lady Pea attempting to appeal against her impending eviction but it finally went ahead in June 2023.
Since then, Lady Pea has filed other claims at the civil courts against the family – resulting in the application for the ECRO.
In her ruling, Judge Walden-Smith wrote: ‘This claimant views litigation as being a never-ending process; that could not be further from the truth.’
Warning that the case had become ‘plainly an abuse of the court’s process’ and accusing Lady Pea of attempting to use litigation ‘as a weapon’, she added: ‘She may well feel she has a genuine grievance in this matter.
‘She may well feel that she wishes to use the court as a way to establish her position against Mr Cator but she cannot continue to do that.’
In court transcripts seen by a local newspaper, Lady Pea accepted her legal options were over.
She said: ‘I believed when I was renting a house and paying £50,000, over, I believed it was an honest transaction and I was led to believe that it was a lawful renting and it was not.
‘I have suffered hugely because of the actions of Mr Cator and have attempted to save my world and save my life, actually, and gone through the courts to do that, believing that the courts would listen to the issues.
‘I understand what you have said today and really have no intention at all to pursue anything else with Mr Cator.’
In a statement afterwards, she added: ‘I paid 12 months’ rent up front and the house was not fit to be rented. The Cators don’t want you knowing that.’
A CERO is designed save court time by preventing ‘vexatious’ litigation.
A government website describes them as being used ‘when a person’s application for a court hearing is refused but they won’t accept the judge’s decision’, adding they are ‘limited to a specific group of courts’.
They last three years but can be renewed for a further three years.
