Watch Out

On Monday, September 11, the council filed five ASBO applications at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court. Two days later police officers delivered summonses to five addresses in Childers Street.

Within half an hour of the documents dropping through the letter boxes, and with the police nowhere to be seen, a baying mob had gathered outside Mrs Hopkins’s home.

Why? Because among the forms handed to each boy was a statement signed by Ms Proud that revealed that she was presenting evidence from “witness A”, who “wishes to be anonymous for fear of reprisals”.

Immediately below is a paragraph in which witness A is described as a resident of Childers Street who has lived there for 6½ years and is 60 years of age. There are only 19 homes on the street. Everyone knows everyone. Mrs Hopkins, a former care and support worker, had just been grassed up by her own council.

By pure chance, on the afternoon in question she was in hospital with her 58-year-old husband, who had just suffered a suspected heart attack. It was left to her son to face a hate-filled rabble that was demanding blood.

Soon, cars drove up to disgorge local hard cases armed with baseball bats and knives, and one man, allegedly, carrying a gun.

There was only one way out. Mrs Hopkins was contacted by her family and warned not to come home. The gang was told that the evidence against them would be withdrawn. It was, and the ASBO applications have collapsed.

Mrs Hopkins has been unable to return to the area. Her house is now boarded up and she is living in a temporary safe house provided by a wellwisher.

Neither the council nor the police seemed willing this week to accept any responsibility for the potentially life-threatening identification blunder, although each was eager to blame the other.

Merseyside Police said that the information in the documents disclosed to the defendants was entirely the responsibility of the local authority. The force also claimed that the officers who had been dealing directly with Childers Street had no idea that the summonses were being delivered on that day. One police source said that Mrs Hopkins had been treated appallingly. “She has a right to be afraid. She’s been let down because her identity has been revealed and that has put her in danger.”

The area police commander, Chief Superintendent Andy Ward, said in a statement: “We sympathise entirely with this local resident and her family, particularly as she was prepared to take a stand against antisocial behaviour in her area. This application by the council’s antisocial behaviour unit has unfortunately led to a witness being vulnerable, something which needs to be avoided at all costs.”

Liverpool City Council, by contrast, insisted that its officials had handled the matter by the book and said that the timing of the summons deliveries, earlier than had been scheduled, was the fault of the police.

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