A defenceless woman was stabbed to death by her next-door neighbour after he became enraged at losing a long-running noise dispute, a court has heard.
Trevor Gibbon, 48, allegedly killed Alison Morrison, 45, on December 18 last year because he believed she had got the upper hand in the four-year saga.
Gibbon carried out the attack the day after pleading guilty to harassing the Morrison family and being made the subject of a restraining order, the Old Bailey heard.
As Mrs Morrison made her way to work in the morning, Gibbon ambushed her, armed with two knives.
He forced her to the ground and repeatedly stabbed the mother-of-one before running off to his car, leaving her for dead, the court heard.
Prosecutor Brian O'Neill QC said Gibbon had admitted the killing but would argue he was "suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning" which impaired his ability to form rational judgment and exercise self-control.
But Mr O'Neill told jurors: "That morning Trevor Gibbon was a very angry man. He may well have felt that Alison Morrison had gotten the better of him and had won their protracted dispute. He may well have felt the need for revenge as a result.
"And so he armed himself with not one but two knives and drove off to wait for her as she made her way to the station.
"He attacked her, intending not merely to cause her really serious injury, but to kill her.
"This was a planned, premeditated attack on an unarmed defenceless woman by an angry man who was out for revenge. This was murder, nothing less."
The dispute dated back to 2011 when Mrs Morrison, her husband Cedric and their teenage son moved next door to Gibbon and his partner in Windsor Crescent, Harrow, north-west London.
Almost immediately, Gibbon complained about the noise from the boy's skateboard but, despite the Morrisons' attempts to placate him, nothing seemed to satisfy him, the jury was told.
By the summer of 2012, Mrs Morrison contacted the local authority for advice, the court heard.
Mr O'Neill said the Morrisons wanted to live in peace with their neighbours but Gibbon seemed to take almost every opportunity to escalate things.
He said:"While the list of individual incidents may sound trivial, their cumulative effect was such that it had a deteriorating effect upon the health and well-being of Mr and Mrs Morrison."
The Morrisons installed CCTV cameras to gather evidence of what they were subjected to on a daily basis and Gibbon followed suit, the court heard.
Gibbon and his partner, Maria Perrett, rebuffed repeated attempts by the council and police to broker better relations and in April last year, he was issued with a prevention of harassment letter, which he refused to sign.
Gibbon denies murder and the trial continues.