Our neighbour from hell ‘trapped our cat in a CAGE, made her dog poo outside our home & hounded us with frog croaks’
A NEIGHBOUR has allegedly trapped a couple’s cat in a cage, made her dog poo outside their home and harassed them with the croaks of an electronic garden frog.
Wealthy barrister Tim Sheppard said he and his interpreter wife Elena Garcia-Alvarez’s lives have been “devastated” by the behaviour of their neighbour Josie Hitchens.
The employment lawyer and his wife claim they have endured years of harassment after moving into their five-bed home in Digby Crescent, Finsbury Park, in 2006.
They have accused their neighbour of allegedly “trapping” their prized cat Harry in her garden, plaguing them with constant door slamming and bouncing a ball in the small hours.
The couple also say she “deliberately” used a tree outside their home as a toilet for her dogs and hounded them with the croaking of a motion-activated model frog.
But Ms Hitchens, 56, denies the claims insisting she did not trap the cat.
Her lawyers told Judge Tracey Bloom at Central London County Court that much of the case against her is groundless and based on “assumption and inference”.
Mr Sheppard, 56, and his wife, 55, have now gone to court in a bid to curtail acts which they say have caused them “alarm and distress”.
The pair are seeking an injunction to prevent further alleged harassment, plus £40,000 in damages.
Mr Sheppard told the court that “problems” between the neighbours started when Ms Hitchens knocked on their front door a day or so after they moved in.
He told the judge: “I asked her whether she wanted to come in and have a glass of wine, but she refused and started asking about our cat and whether we let it out, and that her cats were the dominant ones in the area.
“That’s how the relationship started and then she proceeded to leave.”
He told the judge their neighbour’s hostility towards Harry ultimately forced the family to find him a new home.
He said: “It was like she had an issue with anyone having cats in the vicinity of her property.”
Mr Sheppard added that he and his wife had done their utmost to reconcile with Ms Hitchens.
In a witness statement, Ms Garcia-Alvarez said the couple had endured years of “awful behaviour from her towards us and our cat, which included Josie Hitchens trapping Harry in a cage when he went into her garden.”
Mr Sheppard also claimed that Ms Hitchens further weaponised her pets by deliberately targeting a tree outside their front garden as a dog toilet.
Mr Sheppard went on to say that family life was disrupted over the years by a series of intrusive noise nuisances stemming from his neighbour’s home.
These included door slamming and the unsettling croak of a “novelty” garden frog.
Ms Hitchens told the court she currently looks after around ten or 11 cats and has three dogs staying with her.
And in her evidence, she denied telling Mr Sheppard that her cats were “the dominant ones in the area”.
While in her witness statement she recalled: “I remember that the claimants were pushy and insisted that I allow their cat into my property.”
Quizzed by Mr Sheppard’s barrister, Jack Feeny, about her attitude to his family’s pet, Ms Hitchens brushed aside claims that she had ever set a cat trap for Harry.
She insisted: “I did not trap their cat in my garden.”
In relation to the claims about the noisy frog, Ms Hitchens’ barrister Simon Hunter said there was only ever one frog and that it would have had no impact on her neighbours’ enjoyment of their home.
He also insisted the claim she was deliberately making a “zapping” noise was “another inference”.
He pointed out that Mr Sheppard has never been able to identify a zapping “device”.
The case continues.