Alison Chabloz

Thanks for your message, Sergeant.

Here is my statement:

Following previous treatment of me by Derbyshire Constabulary, including six arrests, unwarranted detention and seizure of my property whilst seemingly being reluctant to carry out any proper investigation into harassment of which I am the victim, this statement will be published in full on my blog alisonchabloz.wordpress.com as well as forwarded to my solicitor, my barrister, and to Ms Jane Grenfell of the UK Charity Commission.

Last Wednesday January 10th during my now re-adjourned trial at Westminster Magistrates Court, cross examination by my barrister, Mr Adrian Davies, of Crown Prosecution witness Mr Stephen Silverman – Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) Director of Investigations and Enforcement – led to Mr Silverman admitting under oath that the Twitter troll account @NemoNemo50 was run by Mr Stephen Applebaum of Watford, subject of my recent complaint to Hertfordshire Constabulary.

Furthermore, Mr Silverman admitted in a witness statement submitted to the same court in December 2016 that he himself runs Mr Applebaum’s associate troll account @BedlamJones (now renamed to @SsilvUK):

My first report to Derbyshire Constabulary concerning these two accounts was made via email to PC David Pheasey on February 2nd, 2016, after harassment of me by both these men who use their anonymous accounts to target my professional career as follows:

August 2015: both men contacted me for the first time via Twitter after Mrs Ambrosine Shitrit and Ms Andrea Silva (both of London and both subjects of prior complaints to police, as PC Pheasey will be able to testify) tried to have my Edinburgh Fringe music show cancelled.

November 2015: Mr Applebaum and Mr Silverman attempted to have two of my Christmas Carol concerts cancelled.

January 2016: both men targeted me again via Twitter and it is my belief that CAA then contacted Glossop Labour Club (GCL) with the intent of ostracising me from my local social life – which is now effectively the case as I was thereafter banned from entering the GLC building. I also reported this matter to PC Pheasey by email. Ms Katherine Carver of Glossop, committee member, will be able to assist with enquiries.

August 2016: Mr Applebaum (now going by the Twitter handle @Sicaro72) and Mr Silverman again targeted my Edinburgh Fringe show and, this time, managed to have my show pulled by the venue organisers “for political reasons” (!!). Following this incident and yet another report to your colleague, I was informed by PC Pheasey in a telephone call that this online harassment would now be part of an ongoing police investigation which had begun some months previously after I had received several threatening anonymous postal deliveries. (N.B. It would appear that neither of the prime suspects in this case, Mrs Shitrit and Ms Silva, were ever questioned or interviewed under caution in this matter).

October 2016, following ever more intense trolling of me on Twitter, in particular by Mr Applebaum, my Twitter account was suspended. Later, the UK Jewish Community Security Trust (CST) took credit on its own website for having lobbied Twitter to remove my account. I again reported this targeted harassment of me to Derbyshire Constabulary and received an email in reply from A/Insp Trevor Steed informing me that their investigation was now closed.

A week later, I was arrested on suspicion of harassment of two women (one of whom was Ambrosine Shitrit!!!) as well as for incitement to religious hatred for composing satirical songs which I recorded and uploaded to the Internet(!).

I was held in custody for six hours, my laptop and phone seized, then bailed until January 2016. In fact, I was never asked to answer bail and all the above allegations were seemingly dropped – although Derbyshire Constabulary, 15 months on, still has not informed me whether this is the case.

[Following my further arrest and detention last October (2017) for an alleged breach of bail for recording and uploading two more satirical songs to the Internet, I was charged with a further count of mal comms for one of the songs and told that another possible charge for incitement for the other song was ‘under investigation’. This case is, apparently, still ‘under investigation’. The song, satirically entitled ‘Too Extreme For the BNP’ surely cannot be charged under the Public Order Act 1986 because of the exemption regards comedy and satire, as accepted by the House of Lords in 2006? I would be grateful for news of any police decision on this matter, as well as the return of my Vodafone SmartPhone, seized also last October].

A week after my 2016 arrest, I received a summons from Westminster Magistrates Court, charged with sending ‘grossly offensive’ material under the Communications Act – a private prosecution brought against me by CAA chairman, Gideon Falter. This case is still ongoing. After originally refusing to take action, the CPS took over the case in March and I now face five similar charges for three of my songs. My trial has been adjourned till March 7th when I shall be giving evidence and my barrister’s defence submission will be heard.

Over the past two and a half years, I have been able to collect a vast amount of evidence suggesting that my initial accuser, Mr Falter, must have been fully aware of Mr Applebaum’s and Mr Silverman’s roles as anonymous Twitter trolls, using a system of baiting and entrapment to stalk, harass and goad in order to remove from individuals they disapprove of not only the right to freedom of expression, but also the right to earn a living – in my case, as a musician.

I believe Mr Applebaum was ‘assigned’ to target me, perhaps with the approval of both Jewish charities concerned (CST and, in particular, CAA)? Mr Silverman and he both began their dual attacks on the exact same day, August 19th 2015. I have the screenshots to prove this. Mr Applebaum’s output of venom towards me was at least ten times greater than that of Silverman (as evidenced in screenshots); during his most intense periods of activity, I was targeted at least three times daily. It was only once I sent a spreadsheet to Twitter Support of 500 tweets by @Sicaro72, mentioning me or sent directly to me over a period of six months, that Twitter finally suspended Mr Applebaum’s sockpuppet account. Mr Applebaum has used numerous other anonymous Twitter handles to bully me. His latest manifestation – as confirmed by the timeline of tweets – is believed to be @Rattus2384.

In light of Mr Silverman’s recent admissions in court regarding knowledge and ownership of these troll accounts by prominent CAA staffers,  immediate action by police is now necessary to prevent any further miscarriage of justice and reduce the likelihood of negative consequences regards Derbyshire Constabulary’s apparent complicity my prosecution.

Moreover, during further cross examination by Mr Davies, Mr Silverman admitted that – even in the case of my eventual acquittal – he would consider appropriate any further ‘relentless targeting’ of my career and person in order to stem my alleged ‘anti-Semitism’ and, ultimately, silence me for good. I am far from being Mr Applebaum’s and Mr Silverman’s only victim. Both men need to be apprehended before similar harm comes to other decent, law-abiding citizens who are merely expressing an opinion.

Since my trial, my main Facebook account has been subjected to a 30-day ban and viewing restrictions have been imposed on my entire YouTube library for alleged breaches of ‘community guidelines’. Following CAA’s recent announcement of a deal struck with Google to trawl the net for ‘anti-Semitism’, in my view, this new round of book-burning is the result of CAA dictating to Google that my voice must be silenced – even on instrumental tracks! Also, media reports published following my court appearance have again resulted in several threats of violence against my person, including replies to CAA’s Facebook post report of Wednesday’s hearing, one of which states that I am ‘scum’ that ‘must be taken out’. These threats have also been recorded and one particularly violent and threatening comment posted to my blog has been reported to Police Scotland by email.

Clearly, as CAA is using ‘lawfare’ to target individuals in order to bring about unnecessary, unwarranted and costly prosecutions, its charitable status needs to be reviewed and, in a sane world, revoked by the UK Charity Commission: the case brought against me has provoked an undeniably negative effect on my rights under law.

A signed hard copy of this full statement and a dossier of annotated evidence in the form of screenshots, including URLs, will follow shortly by post to Buxton, along with names and email addresses of further witnesses who would be willing to give statements in support of evidence already provided.

Kind regards,

Alison Chabloz.