By, JC Reporter
2 min read
ByJC Reporter, JC Reporter
A Jewish mother made a hoax bomb threat to a synagogue and tried to pin it on another mother in a harassment campaign sparked by a row over a children's party invitation.
Claire Mann, 48, bombarded Roz Page with abusive messages and attempted to blame her victim by sending similar texts to her own phone.
As part of the campaign she sent a text to the local synagogue claiming there was a bomb in a hotel where Israeli guests were staying.
Ms Page claims the harassment began because Mrs Mann believed her daughter had been snubbed when she didn't receive a birthday party invitation.
Ross Cohen, prosecuting, at Wood Green Crown Court, said that in July 2013 Elisheva Mason, the wife of the rabbi of Muswell Hill synagogue, received the threat from an unknown number.
Mr Cohen said: "The message read, 'Community Safety Team [CST]', which is a group that looks after the Jewish community in London, 'there's a bomb in the Kinloss area hotels, where there are many Israelis staying. Please arrange evacuation'.
"She texted back, 'who's this?', and received a reply which read, 'don't question, act'.
"Mrs Mason was understandably concerned, so she called the CST, and they immediately notified the police, who responded in quick time."
The police, Mr Cohen said, "treated it as a real threat" adding: "The investigating officer noted the guests' fear, despite the police having been satisfied after having searched the grounds that the call was, in fact, a hoax."
Mr Cohen said: "The number that had been used had also featured in an ongoing string of harassment allegations involving the defendant and Roz Page.
"Those allegations and counter-allegations started over an argument concerning their children.
"Both women allege that they received abusive text messages from each other."
Ms Page was interviewed by police about sending the messages but Mr Cohen said, "In reality, knowing what we now know, those messages were sent by Ms Mann to Ms Page, and by Ms Mann to herself".
Despite that, Ms Page still received a harassment warning from the police.
The phone used in both the hoax bomb-scare, and the harassment of Roz Page, was an unregistered Tesco phone.
Mr Cohen said: "The texts had been sent via a cell mast extremely close to the home address of Claire Mann.
"That information led to Claire Mann being considered a suspect in the harassment of Roz Page."
The day after the bomb hoax, police raided Mann's Hendon home where she was living with her then-husband, Barry Mann.
During the search, Mr Cohen said, Mann "became terrified and repeated 'I did it, I did it, I did it. I have had enough. It's a prank that has gone wrong'."
She then claimed she had thrown the phone away but it was found in a box hidden in her wardrobe.
Mann has previously admitted two counts of intending the pervert the course of justice. The first relates to the bomb hoax and harassment between July 1 and July 21 2013, while the second relates to her claim at the Family Court that she was a qualified psychologist.
Mann ran a firm with her new partner, David Bright, called The Parents Voice, which acted as "McKenzie Friends" - paid but unqualified legal advisers - in family court matters.
Bright denied the offence, but was found guilty after trial at Harrow Crown Court.
Both Mann and Bright, of Uphill Road, Mill Hill, north London, will be sentenced on Monday.
