I am crowdfunding to raise funds to help my legal costs in fighting a Community Protection Notice (CPN) served on me, unfairly, by Hackney Police force. This CPN puts more than unreasonable restrictions on me in my own home and breaches Article 8 of the Human Rights Act.

About the case

I am a middle-aged woman, living on my own; I suffer from PTSD as a result of abuse and I experience intense anxiety and panic. I have been waiting for trauma counselling for over 5 years.

I have devoted my life to looking after my cats who have various disabilities and wouldn’t be alive without me.

I have good relations with the majority of my neighbours who are happy to vouch for this. However, following a long running dispute with one particular neighbour the Police have pursued a case against me based solely on heresay and gossip, without any evidence.

The Police have treated me as the perpetrator when I have been the targeted with ongoing anti-social behaviour in order to perpetuate their unsubstantiated narrative.

The allegations against me are hard to categorise as they are wrong, e.g. slamming a back door when my back door was faulty; an alarm outside my house which was actually a pound shop plastic frog garden toy that croaked; using a drill at times when I wasn’t even present in my flat and was out at work. They also issued a violation notice to the CPN for me having fairy lights in my garden. The process that considered these allegations did not allow for my PTSD and consider any evidence from myself to show that these allegations were false.

These powers were put in place to help victims, but in my experience are being used to victimise people who have done nothing wrong, just trying to live a peaceful life. I am a single woman with PTSD and it would seem that my difference in this respect at best disregarded and at worst actually targeted.

This battle against my CPN has been going on for 2 years and is ruining my life. It has cost me thousands of pounds in legal fees, immense anxiety and exacerbated my PTSD.

There is no legal aid and I have borrowed as much money as I can to support this cause and now I appeal for wider help.

CPNs are like the on-the-spot ASBOs but they do not need to proven in Court, and there a very limited rights of appeal.

My appeal to the IOPC regarding an investigation into police conduct in this case has been upheld and the IOPC have requested that wide ranging  re-investigation into these matters takes place.

As the Manifesto Club wrote in a report about CPNs: "There is a grave need to subject CPNs to a greater degree of oversight and control, to limit such broad and intrusive application. There is a strong argument for limiting CPNs to waste removal issues, since this is the primary function which is not already covered by other powers. CPNs should certainly not be used as a quick-fix measure in areas already covered by more specific parts of the criminal law."  Josie Appleton 

http://manifestoclub.info/cpns-report/