Shabbat bomb hoaxer 'put me through hell'

"I never thought she would admit it," a tearful Mrs Page, who was present at Wood Green Crown Court on Monday to witness Mann's guilty plea, said afterwards.

According to Mrs Page, the harassment began in April 2013 and its roots can be traced to a Facebook group for parents of children attending Clore Tikva Primary School, in Redbridge. Mrs Page's daughter, Sophie, was a pupil at the school and Mrs Page ran the Facebook group.

Mann, whose daughter, the child of a previous marriage, was in the same class as Sophie, asked if her husband, Barry Mann, could join the group.

Mrs Page said no because Mr Mann was not the girl's father.

"I couldn't be responsible for adding a non-parent to the group. There were photos of the children on the site and I would need permission from all 60 parents," Mrs Page explained.

The following month, Mrs Page invited Mann's daughter to Sophie's eighth birthday party, but sent the invitation to Mann's ex-husband, rather than to Mann herself.

She did this "because things hadn't been great with Claire" since the Facebook incident, she said.

The following Friday afternoon, according to Mrs Page, Mann confronted Sophie in the school playground.

"Claire went up to my daughter and called her 'a bitch' for not giving her daughter an invitation," Mrs Page said. "I went potty and messaged her saying it was completely inappropriate and that she had no right to speak to my daughter."

Mrs Page, who lives in Barkingside, Essex, said that "a couple of days later, I started receiving hate messages on my mobile phone. It was a barrage of horrendous texts."

The texts, several of which have been shown to the JC, called Mrs Page an "ugly dog" and told her to "die".

They continued: "Give your kids a chance of a proper life away from you with your gastric bands disgusting hair extensions and fat arse."

Mrs Page claimed she then received texts warning "your days are numbered, bitch".

"I got a text that told me to cancel the party or I would have blood on my hands - that someone would die at the party and it'd be my fault," Mrs Page alleged.

Mann was not charged over these text messages.

Mrs Page informed the police, who said they would tell Mann to stay away from the party, which was being held at a hall in Buckhurst Hill, Essex.

Mrs Page added: "She said she would do, but parents at the party said they saw her driving past that day. I think it was more intimidation than anything else.

"Then it got strange. I told people about the text messages I'd received and told the school, but was getting a really frosty reception from people there, and I didn't know why.

"Two days later the police contacted me and I was questioned at Ilford police station about abusive text messages that Claire had claimed I had sent to her.

"I was later phoned by a detective who tried to convince me to accept a caution for sending the texts. No one believed I hadn't done it, apart from my close friends and family. Everyone thought I was sending these texts".

The mother of two - who has another child, now aged eight - said that the stress of the experience had repercussions both mentally and physically.

"I ended up in hospital," she said. "I'd suffered a stroke three years before, and the doctors were worried about my health. I was kept in King George Hospital for four days with high blood pressure."

In court this week, Mann pleaded guilty to telling the police she had received abusive texts which she falsely represented had been sent by Mrs Page. In fact, Mann had sent them to herself.

However, if the dispute and text messages were "strange", according to Mrs Page, what happened next was stranger still.

On July 19 2013, a Friday afternoon, Mann sent a text to Elisheva Mason, the rebbetzin at Muswell Hill Synagogue.

In the text, Mann falsely claimed that a bomb had been planted in the area around Finchley United Synagogue in north London.

According to the police, the message read: "There is a bomb threat to Kinloss (Kinloss Gardens, N3) area hotels where there are many Israelis staying, please arrange evacuation".

The court heard that Mann sent the text with the intent of attaching the blame for this report - which led to the shul being searched by security staff - to Mrs Page.

But the 43-year-old had made a mistake.

The phone she used to text the bomb hoax was the same phone she had shown to police when claiming that Mrs Page had sent her the abusive messages.

The next day, July 20, police officers raided Mann's home in Hendon and arrested her.

Mr Mann, who has since divorced his wife, told the JC that the police arrived early on Shabbat morning. "The police started going on about a bomb hoax which I had no idea about.

"They said they were going to search the place. Claire told them to f*** off and come back with a search warrant.

"This went on for 10 minutes. I said to Claire: 'Oh, if you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about.' I signed the search warrant and she completely freaked out.

"She darted for the door, tried to run away, the police held her for her own safety in handcuffs, while the police searched the bedroom.

"That went on for 40 minutes. Eventually they found the box for the mobile phone in the bottom right corner of her wardrobe. It was a Nokia box in a Tesco bag, with a receipt from Borehamwood Tesco. They seized it, put it in an evidence bag and then arrested her in the hallway."

Mann was eventually charged in August 2014 after a police investigation, and bailed.

Mrs Page said that even after Mann was arrested, she "put me and my family through hell for three years," damaging her reputation with other parents, the school and its board of governors.

"She was still walking into school, talking to other mothers, saying it was a big mistake and it was all made up and not true that she had been arrested. It was insane.

"By then I'd given up going to school. My husband Nick did it instead, because no one apart from my close friends believed me.

"I ended up on anti-depressant tablets, lost some of my hair due to stress, and went on blood pressure tablets again."

Mrs Page said that in the three years between Mann's arrest and her appearance in court this week: "I was ostracised by the school, and when people see the school doing that, they think it's true. I wasn't allowed to go into the school library. They didn't realise the effect it had on me. It really hurt."

Clore Tikva, and the local authority, Redbridge Council, declined to comment on Mrs Page's claims, but once a prominent member of the community and former chair of the Parent Staff Association, Mrs Page said she became "paranoid" about going to school because of what other parents were saying behind her back.

"There's still a group of 15 parents who don't speak or look at me, who still think I lied about what Claire did. I don't think those friendships will be repaired," she explained. "You couldn't make this up; it just sounds ridiculous. And all over a children's birthday party - it's insane."

When Mann admitted her guilt this week, Mrs Page said "the emotions came flooding out. "That's all I wanted to hear her say, that she had done it," Mrs Page continued, adding that it took pressure off her daughter too.

"Sophie was really relieved. She said: 'So will you be able to come back into the school? Are the other mums going to start talking to you again?'"

Speaking after her guilty plea, Mann, who now lives in Mill Hill, north London, denied that she had tried to damage Mrs Page's standing at the school, saying that it was "the other way round.

"Roz Page has sought to have me ostracised over the last three years. I'm not allowed on any of the school Facebook groups for instance. It's me who has been ostracised, not her.

"I would reject any claim that I've tried to get the parents, school or board of governors to ostracise her."

Mann would not discuss anything associated with her guilty plea before sentencing, but denied all the other allegations made against her by Mrs Page, including calling Sophie "a bitch".

"I would never in a million years approach any child like that, let alone calling the child a name.

"I'm not sure I've ever spoken to her child," she said.

Mann claimed that she would give her side of the dispute after she is sentenced.

"There is much more behind this," she said.