Wrong address targeted in midnight police raid
Officers storm magistrate’s home in search of rapists
A 75-year-old Maidstone councillor and magistrate was left in shock after police wielding riot shields stormed into her home in a midnight raid - because they had the wrong address.
Cllr Margaret Rose, who takes medication for a heart problem, was woken by officers who forced their way into her Tufton Street flat to search for a rape suspect.
She has since made a formal complaint against the force.
Cllr Rose told stunned colleagues at a meeting of Maidstone council’s Crime and Disorder Overview and Scrutiny Committee: “It was midnight. I was asleep in bed when there was an incessant hammering at my door. Bang bang bang! It got louder and louder.
“I stumbled downstairs and there were sounds as if someone were trying to force their way in.
“Then I heard the words: ‘It’s the police. Open your door!’
“I opened it and was almost knocked over as three police officers entered my hall - they weren’t invited in, they came in - sheltering behind a large perspex riot shield.”
She said: “They demanded to know: ‘Where’s Cameron? Where’s Cameron?’
“I almost fainted.”
Struggling to hold back tears as she recalled the incident, Cllr Rose said: “I told them my name and that I was a borough councillor and also a magistrate, and said ‘I don’t know who this Cameron person is and I don’t understand why you are doing this’.”
After interrogating Cllr Rose in her kitchen the officers left.
She said: “I’m nearly 76 years old. I’m taking medication for a health problem and I live on my own.”
“I don’t want this situation to damage any of the good work that is being done by the police.
“But these police officers who came into my home – with no reason – well, they had the flimsiest of reasons, a neighbour had said: ‘Go and try there.’
“If I had not opened my door, I believe they would have pushed it in.”