A homeowner evicted his 88-year-old lodger because she was making too much noise in the middle of the night.

Benjamin Hayes, of Pembroke Street in the Cally, had to go through Clerkenwell County Court to claim repossession of the room and said: “She is a sweet and gentle soul and it really grieves me to go through all this paraphernalia.”

But he was also at his wits’ end as he claimed the lodger, Caroline Groves, kept on getting up in the early hours and carrying on with tasks around the house as if it was daytime.

It was left to Mrs Groves’ daughter, Constance, to find new accommodation after the judge allowed the eviction.

Meanwhile, a nine-year-old boy was lucky to be alive after falling 20 feet.

Michael Spencer, of Chalton Street, King’s Cross, was playing at an empty bomb-damaged house in Colebrooke Row, Islington.

He fell from a girder and was treated at the Royal Free hospital for a fractured jaw and suspected fractured skull.