A nightmare neighbour who trapped a couple’s cat in a cage has been ordered to pay them £37,000 in compensation.
Josie Hitchens terrorised employment lawyer Tim Sheppard, 56, and his interpreter wife Elena Garcia-Alvarez, 55, for over a decade after they moved into their five-bedroom home in Finsbury Park, north London, in 2006.
The couple say they have endured years of harassment, which included their neighbour ‘trapping’ their prized Bengal cat Harry in Ms Hitchens’ garden and ‘leaving him in the trap all day’.
Ms Hitchens also weaponised her own pets by ‘deliberately’ encouraging her dogs to ‘do their business’ on a tree outside the front door of their £1.3million house.
The harassment also continued after Ms Hitchens set up a pair of motion-activated model frog in her garden which croaked ‘for months on end’.
Last week, they sued her at Central London County Court, with Judge Tracey Bloom now hitting the 56-year-old with a five-year court order barring her from further acts of nuisance or harassment and awarding Mr Sheppard and Ms Garcia-Alvarez a total of £37,000 in damages.
Describing the impact on the couple as ‘appalling,’ Judge Bloom said: ‘There was an onslaught of harassment for many years such that the claimants were barely able to go into their garden.
‘I have no doubt that Ms Hitchens has pursued a long campaign of harassment by many different strands and methods over many years.
Tim Sheppard’s pet cat Harry (pictured) was trapped in a cage by their neighbour Josie Hitchens who harassed the employment lawyer and his wife Elena Garcia-Alvarez for over a decade
Josie Hitchens (pictured) has been ordered to pay £37,000 in compensation to her neighbours after she terrorised them in their Finsbury Park home
‘This behaviour goes far beyond the usual vicissitudes of modern living, it is genuinely offensive and unacceptable.’
Giving evidence during the trial, Mr Sheppard said ‘problems’ with his neighbour started when Ms Hitchens – who the court heard currently keeps around ten cats and three dogs at her flat – knocked on their front door a day or so after they moved in.
‘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,’ he told the judge.
‘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.
‘It was like she had an issue with anyone having cats in the vicinity of her property,’ he said, adding 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.’
From the witness box, Ms Hitchens denied incarcerating Harry, but her neighbours’ barrister confronted her with a letter she had sent the couple at the time in which she threatened to trap their pet.
Tim Sheppard (left) and his wife Elena Garcia-Alvarez (right). The judge awarded Ms Garcia-Alvarez £22,000 and Mr Sheppard £15,000 in damages
She also 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.’
But at the end of the five-day trial, Judge Bloom ruled that she had indeed trapped Harry because she saw him as a threat to her own pets.
‘She said in her evidence that she never trapped Harry in the garden, but in her letter sent in 2006 or 2007 she threatened to do exactly that and to leave their cat in the trap until the claimants came home,’ she said.
‘Her cats didn’t want another cat coming into their space. She threatened to trap Harry and she did so. I accept the evidence that Harry was trapped and left in the trap all day.
‘She said in court that she would not do something like that and that she would not treat an animal in that way, but I reject her account.’
As well as the feline turf war, the couple also complained of Ms Hitchens further weaponising her pets by deliberately targeting a tree outside their front garden as a dog toilet, while also unleashing her cats into her neighbours garden, where they caused damage – even inserting a wooden plank to ‘ease their access’.
Mr Sheppard claimed that targeting the tree was ‘done on purpose and done daily,’ while his wife added: ‘When it is warm, the stench from the area around the small tree which is right in front of our home is overpowering’.
The judge backed both claims, commenting in relation to the tree: ‘I’m quite satisfied that she did encourage the dogs to do their business outside the claimants’ house – either on the gate post or on the tree outside.’
Digby Crescent in Finsbury Park where Ms Hitchens harassed Mr Sheppard and Ms Garcia-Alvarez. Giving evidence during the trial, Mr Sheppard said ‘problems’ with his neighbour started when Ms Hitchens knocked on their front door a day or so after they moved in
Mr Sheppard had also claimed that family life has been blighted over the years by a series of intrusive noise nuisances stemming from his neighbour’s home, including door slamming and the unsettling croak of a motion-activated ‘novelty’ garden frog.
Asked about the impact of the frog noise by Ms Hitchens’ barrister, he claimed that a pair of electronic frogs were ‘deployed for months on end,’ although nothing more was heard from them after 2017.
‘Much as this might sound trivial, if you take account of the context of the whole behaviour and the noise nuisance then it becomes really disturbing,’ he said.
‘One day I remember hearing them at the same time and they were on motion sensors. It might be fun once, but not when they’re playing the next day as well and going off all the time.’
Judge Bloom found that Ms Hitchens had stashed another novelty frog in her garden even after her neighbours complained about the first one, adding: ‘this is another example of her trying to antagonise her neighbours.’
The couple also said their peace was further undermined by an insidious ‘zap noise’ from next door, which Mr Sheppard said appeared to be deliberately used in response to them playing music.
He said he was unable to pinpoint what caused the noise beyond speculating that it sounded like a macerator or sewage grinding machine.
In her judgment, the judge noted that Ms Hitchens had claimed her neighbours were the source of the zapping, alleging that they and others were conspiring to evict her.
She said she couldn’t make any clear finding about what caused the zapping phenomenon, but concluded: ‘I don’t know what the machine is that’s causing this noise, but I’m quite satisfied that the source of the noise is Ms Hitchens.’
The street outside Mr Sheppard and Ms Garcia Alvarez’s home. The couple complained of Ms Hitchens weaponising her pets by deliberately targeting a tree outside their front garden as a dog toilet
Describing the ‘devastating’ impact on his family, Mr Sheppard said in his written evidence: ‘It has not only seriously damaged the quality of our home environment but has had a material adverse effect on our working lives too.
‘As a direct result of her behaviour, we lost our beloved cat, Harry, who only passed away in January 2023, and have had to live without any pet due to the fear that Josie Hitchens might (show) negative behaviour towards it.
‘We now rarely use our back garden due to anxiety about what noise, or verbal comments might be directed our way by her. We also socialise less at home than we would have.
‘We have had to spend thousands of pounds making changes to our house to minimise the impact of her behavior, and we have tried to sell our house, without success, on at least thee occasions.
‘The noise caused by Ms Hitchens means we cannot relax in our own home and feel constantly on edge.’
Commenting on his evidence of the toll on the family, the judge noted: ‘This statement could not set out more clearly the appalling impact which this lady’s actions have had on the claimants’.
She said the couple had to ‘rehome their cat’ due to their neighbour’s hostility and had also spent money mediating with her and on double glazing their property in a bid to block her out.
‘They have barely been able to go into their garden,’ she added.
The judge awarded Ms Garcia-Alvarez £22,000 and Mr Sheppard £15,000 in damages, also slapping Ms Hitchens with a five-year injunction barring acts of nuisance and harassment in her home, garden and around her neighbours’ property.
