Woman who 'trapped barrister's cat in a cage before harassing him and his wife with novelty garden frog' at their £1.3m home is ordered to pay £37,000
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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 into their five-bedroom home in Finsbury Park, north London, in 2006.
![[Josie Hitchens (pictured) has been ordered to pay £37,000 in compensation to her neighbours after she terrorised them in their Finsbury Park home]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/23/09/93419861-14220807-image-a-2_1734947489457.jpg)
The couple say they have endured years of harassment, which included their neighbour 'trapping' their prized Bengal cat Harry in her 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.
![[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]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/23/09/93419857-14220807-image-a-3_1734947497480.jpg)
To make matters worse, they could not even escape Ms Hitchens in their own home after she haunted them with the croaking of an electronic model frog. 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.
![[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]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/23/09/93419865-14220807-image-a-4_1734947512902.jpg)
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.
![[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]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/23/09/93419863-14220807-image-a-5_1734947517976.jpg)
