'Good citizen' wins £12,000 damages from council who labelled her 'potentially violent'

A "good citizen" won £12,000 High Court libel damages today from the council who called her potentially violent.

Jane Clift, 43, sued Slough Borough Council and Patrick Kelleher, its head of public protection, over their reaction to the way she pursued a complaint about a three-year-old boy who vandalised a flowerbed in a town park.

The authority and Mr Kelleher denied libel, arguing that a November 2005 entry about her on its Violent Persons Register and an email informing people about it were substantially true.

It said in court that Ms Clift was obsessed with achieving the sacking of its anti-social behaviour co-ordinator, Fozia Rashid.

Ms Rashid gave evidence that Ms Clift, of Bottetourt Road, Birmingham, scored "nine and a half out of 10" on the scale of difficult members of the public she had encountered.

But after an eight-day case in London, before Mr Justice Tugendhat, a jury found in favour of Ms Clift, although it rejected her claim that Mr Kelleher had been malicious.

The judge ordered Slough to meet the costs of the action, which are unofficially estimated at about £450,000 but directed that a £50,000 payment on account should be stayed pending any appeal.

Ms Clift said that when she rang Ms Rashid, in August 2005, on the advice of the police, she was "very dismissive" and had accused her of provoking an incident by staying in the park and speaking to some men at the scene - one of whom became abusive.

Her counsel, Hugh Tomlinson QC, said the former care worker was following the the council's own poster campaign about reporting anti-social behaviour and was "understandably furious, frustrated and angry" with Ms Rashid.

Ms Clift had slammed her phone down so hard that part of it broke and told another council worker that, as far as she was concerned, Ms Rashid could "drop down dead".

She followed it up with a letter in which she wrote: "I felt so fronted and so filled with anger that I am certain I would have physically attacked her if she had been anywhere near me.

"I truly am not of that nature and so, surely, this should act as a wake-up call to the borough as to the capacity she has for offending people."

Mr Tomlinson said the council's reaction to Ms Clift's "turn of phrase" was "completely ridiculous" and a "serious and damaging libel".

"She is trying to be a good citizen, report anti-social behaviour, do the right thing and is being told it is all her fault."

Ms Clift said she was horrified at being entered on the register and, eight months later, left Slough, where she had lived for 10 years, as it was impossible to function normally.

She sensed that, everywhere she went, there was "whispering, collaboration, people scurrying about".

"Everywhere I went - hospitals, GPs, libraries - anywhere at all, even if I phoned the fire service, as soon as my name went on to that system, it flagged up 'violent person marker, only to be seen in twos, medium risk'."

She felt she could not pursue her application to be a foster parent.

Telling the jury that what had happened to her could happen to anyone, she said: "I'm nothing special, no qualifications, don't have a fancy job, but I don't go getting into trouble. It cuts across class, race, everything.

"These people have this ability to do this and they can abuse it. Not many people know, I didn't even know, that such a register existed.

"Please put yourself in my position and consider what I feel to be the calibre of public employees who, at the end of the day, are paid for out of council tax.

"What right do they have to do this to members of the public? What possible right? Consider it can happen to anybody. It's happening right now and shouldn't be allowed to happen."

Ms Rashid told the court that Asbos were not meant to capture criminal activity covered by the law and she had tried to explain her role to Ms Clift when she rang.

"Each time I did, I was interrupted. I felt it was more shouting at me and not asking me - almost telling me that I must do something."

Ms Rashid said she tried to be helpful and establish a rapport but Ms Clift called her "stupid" and terminated the call after accusing her of "sitting on your fat arse".

She said she felt as though someone had just hit her and was very upset when Ms Clift's letter arrived.

"It was questioning my honesty and integrity and I take that very seriously."

John Beggs QC, for Slough, asked whether Ms Clift's reaction to the incident was normal - that of a "balanced person" about whom the council had no reason to have any concerns.

He said a responsible manager, like Mr Kelleher, who had agonised over what to do, could not ignore what she said.

"Yes, it's a figure of speech but you have to look at these things in their overall context.

"Are you not beginning to see a pattern of words and behaviour that any diligent manager must react to?"

He questioned whether Ms Clift was the reasonable public- spirited individual, the hero of the situation, as she would have the jury believe.

He said: "She shoots from the hip as soon as someone doesn't deliver exactly what she wants."