Neighbour ‘trapped couple’s cat in cage’ and ‘hounded it with constant croak of novelty garden frog’ as court battle continues

A pet-obsessed neighbour trapped a couple’s cat in a cage and tormented them with a motion-activated croaking frog during an 18-year campaign of harassment, a court has heard.

Employment lawyer Tim Sheppard, 56, and his interpreter wife Elena Garcia-Alvarez, 55, claim they have been “devastated” by the behaviour of their neighbour Josie Hitchens at their £1.3million home in Finsbury Park, north London.

The couple are seeking an injunction and £40,000 in damages at Central London County Court over alleged acts which they say have caused them “alarm and distress”.

Hitchens, 56, who keeps around 10 cats and three dogs, denies all the claims against her.

The court heard that problems began shortly after the couple moved into their five-bedroom home in 2006, when Hitchens knocked on their door.

“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,” Sheppard told the judge.

The couple claim Hitchens’ hostility towards their cat Harry, including trapping him in a garden cage, ultimately forced them to rehome him.

“As a direct result of Hitchens’ behaviour, we lost our beloved cat, Harry, who only passed away in January 2023,” Sheppard said.

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“He only died last year and I’ve thought of him every day since,” he added.

The couple also claim they endured years of noise disturbances from their neighbour’s property, including door slamming and a motion-activated garden frog.

“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,” Sheppard told the court.

A mysterious “zap noise” later replaced the door slamming, which a noise expert described as a “low frequency hum or rumble” rising in volume.

Sheppard claimed the noise was triggered by music from their house: “If you play something, she responds with a zap which goes on about ten times.”

Garcia-Alvarez said monitoring the noise for officials left her “suffering from acute panic attacks caused by extreme stress and anxiety.”

Hitchens strongly denies trapping Harry in her garden, telling the court: “I did not trap their cat.”

In her witness statement, she claimed: “I remember that the claimants were pushy and insisted that I allow their cat into my property.”

Her barrister Simon Hunter insisted there was only ever one frog, not two as claimed, and that it would have had no impact on the neighbours’ enjoyment of their home.

Hunter also argued the claim about deliberate “zapping” noises was “another inference,” pointing out that Sheppard has never been able to identify a zapping device.

The trial continues.