Statement by G. Madden 1st August 2004

Today PC Francis telephoned to say that he might call on me tomorrow in order to take a statement from me. P.C. Francis has already interviewed the McCombies and the Mabrys apparently, though whether he has taken statements from them I do not know. Having had one previous experience of an abortive attempt to give a statement to Sussex Police, I am herewith making my own statement of what happened to me eight days ago, though my previous experience suggests that Sussex Police will only accept a statement if it conforms to the police's preconceptions of what it should say.

Criminal damage to my side gate, threatening and unwarranted intrusion on to my property by six people,
and assault accompanied by abusive and threatening language by three of those people.

On the afternoon of Saturday 24th July, I was at my home address, 11 Blatchington Mill Drive, Stone Cross. It was probably about 2 p.m. when I carried a stepladder to the bottom of my back garden and began to renew the proofing on a wooden shed, starting with the glazed side, which faces WSW. After a few minutes, at perhaps 2.20 p.m., Mr McCombie started shouting abuse and threats from his back garden. I turned round to see him looking over his garden fence and shouting at me. I ignored him for a time, but he persisted with his insults and threats.

As I had, without answering back, put up with abuse and threats from the McCombies' friend Mabry since January 1999, and from the McCombies for many months, and since my complaints to Sussex Police and Eastbourne County Court about the McCombies' abusive language were ineffectual and were followed by even more objectionable language, earlier this year I added two phrases descriptive of the McCombies to the website that I am developing in order to record problems I have been faced with since moving to my present address.

I used insulting language to describe the McCombies, with less offensive terms than those used by the McCombies themselves, in an attempt to dissuade the McCombies from continuing with their abusive language and threats to me.

Accordingly, I told McCombie how he and his wife had been described on my website. What happened next was presumably pre-planned, with McCombie having been deliberately provocative in order to elicit a response from me. McCombie called to "Clive", i.e. Mabry, who was presumably either in his own back garden or on the McCombies' property already; soon after there was a great noise from the direction of my side gate, and several people invaded my back garden. Three of them came through a gateway into the fenced-off area at the bottom of the garden and assaulted me.

It started with McCombie himself grabbing hold of me and shaking me about, shouting abusive language, threatening violence if I did not get out of my property, and telling me that I would have to watch my back in the future. I was holding a paint brush in my right hand, which left red marks on McCombie's shirt. This happened on the NNW side of the shed, out of sight of people in the main part of the garden, with me trapped between the shed and the fence at the back of my garden. Mabry then replaced McCombie. I tried to get back into the main part of the garden, but had only moved about half a metre before Mabry grabbed me, and subjected me to more abusive and threatening language. Then, when I was about half way towards the gateway in the fence, Mrs McCombie grabbed me, shook me, and subjected me to further abuse and threats. She then swung her right arm and hit me across the left side of the head. This last assault may or not have been visible from the main part of the garden, depending on where an observer was standing.

On returning to the main part of the garden, I saw three other intruders: Mrs McCombie, a man who was evidently visiting the Mabrys, and a man from 21 Patcham Mill Road who as far as I remember is called Denis or Dennis.

When the intruders had gone, I telephoned the police using their 0845 number, and was told that police would probably arrive in 2 to 4 hours. I took a shower, and noticed red marks on my arms and chest. My head hurt a little, and the area of my left ear still calls attention to itself.

Later, perhaps at 5.30 p.m. or 5.45 p.m., I ventured out to look at the side gate, and saw that the bolt and the screws holding it had been ripped from the posts, the key which locks the latch in place had been pulled from its socket, and the arm of the latch had been bent backwards.

I photographed the damage at the height of the latch on 25th July, before the police visited me, and the following day I photographed the items on the ground, the bolt, screws, and latch key.

Signed by me as a careful and true account, 1st August 2004

[P.S. 28/10/06 There is an error in the fifth paragraph from the end (On returning . . . .): the first of the three other intruders was Mrs Mabry.]