A mother-of-four has described the terrifying moment she was arrested in front of her screaming disabled children after a “neighbour from hell” convinced police she had been attacked with a broom.
Ruzena Gaborova, 48, says she was left deeply traumatised after a bitter dispute with mother-of-six Salina Begum, 47, in Chatham, Kent, escalated to the point where she spent 13 hours overnight in a police cell.
In a twist, Begum’s false claims were ultimately undone by the same footage she had submitted to officers as supposed proof of the alleged assault.
Begum, who already had a conviction for harassment, avoided prison last month at Maidstone Crown Court after receiving a 13-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, for perverting the course of justice.
Speaking exclusively to Our News Outlet, Ms Gaborova opened up about what she described as four years of misery, saying: “I am so happy it is over.”
She said that throughout the ordeal she was repeatedly treated by police as the aggressor, including being arrested twice in front of her children and, on one occasion, locked in a cell for 13 hours overnight.
Ms Gaborova alleges Begum monitored her, damaged her car, left a decapitated rat on the vehicle, and attempted to pay homeless men and gangsters to attack her. She also claims Begum’s husband chased her while carrying a metal pole.
“I am scared of her, my children are scared of her,” Ms Gaborova said. “She was bullying me. She was calling the police and they were arresting me for no reason.”
Salina Begum, who has a previous conviction for harassment, was last week spared jail at Maidstone Crown Court
Ms Gaborova has one daughter and three sons – one with cerebral palsy, one with schizophrenia and epilepsy and one with hearing problems.
Recalling the second time she was arrested, Ms Gaborova told the Mail: ‘I have disabled children and I was cooking for them. They arrested me for no reason. I was stressed, I was in panic.
‘My son Patrick is in a wheelchair and he was screaming when he saw police taking me. I couldn’t even feed my son because of all this.’
Ms Gaborova told the Mail how she moved from Slovakia to Britain 16 years ago and has always been very close with neighbours, until Begum and her family moved in two doors down.
The court heard there was a history of hostility between Begum and Ms Gaborova with ‘numerous allegations between the two going back and forth’. This included Begum claiming she was being harassed and racially abused.
However, Begum was often shown to be the ‘aggressor or instigator’ so no further action was ever taken.
The ongoing dispute exploded in August 2022 when police were called to a fight between the two women outside their homes in Castle Road, Chatham.
Begum, who was treated as the victim, alleged she had been violently assaulted and handed police footage supposedly showing her being hit with a broom by Ms Gaborova.
Ms Gaborova was arrested the following day, but when she provided her own CCTV of Begum as the initial aggressor, police decided to take no further action.
Just two months later, Begum reported the alleged assault again and submitted the same video.
And then on May 18, 2023, she called the police again to claim she was the victim of another broom assault at the hands of Ms Gaborova.
Ms Gaborova was arrested six days later at her home, in front of her children, at around 2.30pm. She was booked into police custody at 3.11pm and detained overnight until her release at 4.12am, the court heard.
This adds up to just over 13 hours in police custody.
Shockingly, it would emerge that Begum had again used the same video from the incident in August 2022 – and that the supposed altercation on May 18, 2023, simply did not exist.
‘The police were believing her,’ Ms Gaborova said. ‘She was treated like the victim.
‘But when they found out it was fake they brought me home and said sorry.’
The ongoing dispute exploded in August 2022 when police were called to a fight between the two women outside their homes in Castle Road, Chatham. Pictured: Begum outside court
Describing how it made her family feel, she said: ‘It was very bad, it was very stressful. I was going to hospital because my heart pressure was high and I was always stressed.’
Ms Gaborova claims Begum first started creating problems shortly after she moved in.
She told the Mail how Begum would repeatedly knock at the door or peep through the letterbox while she was cooking, cleaning or bathing her disabled children.
Ms Gaborova began to ignore her, but then Begum’s children would come round and pester the family.
She claims they would pour water on her door, throw eggs at the windows and leave rubbish outside.
‘I went to her house and told her nicely to stop, and after that it all started. She was bullying me. She was calling the police. I went into town with my sister and she was being racist, she was following me through town.
‘She started to fight me and my sister. Her husband took out a big metal pole.
‘He was trying to hit me on my head. If he hit me, I would be dead, I would not be with my children today.’
Ms Gaborova claimed she would be rude towards her and her children. ‘She was saying my children smell… she would call me a fat b***h. She would scream at me.’
On the day of the alleged broom attack, Ms Gaborova said she was cleaning her home when she spotted Begum peeping through her letterbox.
‘I was cleaning the house. She was looking at me through the letterbox. I opened the door and she was hiding. I told her: ‘Why are you watching me?’
‘She said “f*** off you b***h”. I had the broom in my hands and she was trying to take it from me. I said “why are you taking my broom?” She was trying to kick me in the leg. I pulled her over with the broom and said: ‘Go away. Why are you doing this?’
‘The police came and she claimed I was fighting her. But I didn’t even hit her, she hit me.
‘Her behaviour was very bad, very bad. I have lived here for 16 years and I’ve never had a problem with anyone. But when she came, it was like I was dreaming. I was sleeping and waking up thinking when is this going to start again.’
Ms Gaborova’s sister, Simona, told the Mail: ‘She [Begum] was doing very bad things on the street. She paid people money to kill my sister.
‘I think she’s crazy.’
The court heard that Begum expressed remorse and terror at the prospect of a custodial sentence.
According to KentOnline, Judge Robert Lazarus scolded Begum for wasting police time by making a ‘false complaint about Ms Gaborova’.
He added: ‘I find it very difficult to trust much of what you have said.’
‘This is a serious offence but… there are sometimes such offences that are much more serious, and I don’t think this offence is so serious that immediate custody is the only appropriate punishment.’
Begum was handed a 13-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, with 200 hours of unpaid work and 15 rehabilitation activity requirements.
A spokesman for Kent Police said: ‘When police officers make an arrest, they must have reasonable grounds to suspect a crime has been committed and that it is necessary to detain them whilst further enquiries take place.
‘An arrest is not in itself an indication of guilt. It does however allow investigators to gather and test evidence and then establish the full circumstances.
‘In this case, a comprehensive and expeditious investigation led officers to identify the lies told by Salina Begum and she was subsequently arrested and charged with perverting the course of justice.
‘Due to the weight of evidence against her, the 47-year-old admitted the offence and was sentenced.’
