It is now more than ten years since North Yorkshire Police and York Social Services started what had become known as the “Abuse of Grandma B”. Barbara Hofschröer is currently being held prisoner in Haxby Hall “Care” Home, where York Social Services are subjecting her to further abuse.
So that our readers are aware to what lengths police officers and social workers are prepared to go to rob and torment defenceless, old people, here are a couple of incidents from this affair:
THE LAST CHRISTMAS
On Christmas Day 2008, Grandma B was in her home in York. Her husband Paul was so seriously ill, his bed had been placed in the dining room downstairs so he could get close attention in the daytime. Paul and Barbara had recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Peter, their younger son and carer, was preparing the Christmas Dinner. It was to be Paul’s last.
All of a sudden, a group of people turned up outside their front door, unannounced. They rang the doorbell. Peter saw that the person ringing the bell was Diane Hofschröer, his niece. The last time she had had contact with her grandparents had been some months earlier, when she demanded they hand over their life-savings. When they did not, Diane broke off contact and refused to allow Barbara to see her great-grandson, which was very hurtful to her.
Standing next to Diane was her father Robert Hofschröer. The last time he had come to his parents’ house had been some months earlier, when Barbara and Peter attempted to have a conversation with him about the future care of Paul.
Robert had brought his two children with him, Diane and Martin. Robert’s behaviour was so bizarre that Peter discussed it with a known psychologist, who confirmed that Robert’s paranoid personality disorder had now reached the stage of a psychosis. As such, Robert was likely to become seriously and potentially lethally violent towards anybody he considers a threat to him. Peter was advised to prevent Robert from having any further contact with his parents. Peter did not open the front door.
Diane then lifted up the letter flap and started screaming through it, “Open the f**king door!”, while Robert started banging on the window.
Peter reacted by dialling 999. The call operator commented on the noise Diane was making. It was recorded by the 999 operator. This was indisputable evidence of a breach of the peace.
Paul became extremely distressed as he, like many victims of the Second World War, did not like loud noises. Peter later had to call in the emergency doctor to examine Paul. A few days later, he died.
The Officers of North Yorkshire Police then arrived. They held a long conversation with Robert and his family outside Barbara’s house before knocking on the door. Instead of arresting Robert and his family, the officers tried to persuade Peter to allow them access to his parents’ house. Despite the indisputable evidence, no arrests were ever made.
WHILE THE CORPSE WAS STILL WARM
After this incident, Paul’s health went rapidly downhill. When his doctor called on 2nd January 2009, Barbara and Peter were told he only had days to live.
Barbara and Peter then discussed whether they should inform Robert of the situation, giving him a chance to make his peace with his father. As Robert is deaf, they could not phone him, so Peter e-mailed Robert, informing him of the situation and, in view of the incident on Christmas Day, requesting he come alone and in peace. Robert received the e-mail that evening. He did not come.
Paul passed away peacefully at 4am on the morning of 3rd January 2009 in the company of Barbara and Peter. They were both exhausted after this ordeal and were sitting down in the dining room with Paul when, at 10am, the doorbell rang. Peter answered it. Robert was standing there. Barbara came out of the living room and told Robert that Paul had died. Robert charged at Barbara and pushed her. Barbara was dodgy on her legs and had a history of falls, so Peter placed himself in front of his mother to protect her. A police officer who had been hiding around the corner then entered the house and pushed Peter against the wall, threatening to arrest him if he moved.
This officer then signalled a female officer standing at the end of the drive. She then ran towards the house accompanied by Barbara’s grandchildren Diane and Martin. Peter told the officer pinning him to the wall he did not want them in the house. The officer told Peter to shut up or he would be arrested.
Diane and Martin ran into the dining room and started screaming abuse at Paul’s still-warm corpse. Diane’s use of the “f-word” is accounted for already.
Robert and his family left Barbara’s house shouting abuse at her and Peter. Robert raised his fist and threatened to kill them both. The police did nothing.
THE “RAPE” OF BARBARA’S HOUSE
At the end of 2009, Barbara and Peter went to Austria for a holiday there. Robert, who had been stalking them all that year, noticed they were not there. His colleagues in York Social Services confirmed Barbara was not going to her day-club, while the police questioned neighbours who confirmed she had gone on holiday to Austria for a month. Robert and Martin then forced entry to Barbara’s house. Neighbours reported them removing her belongings to the police. Officers attended, but made no arrests.
Neighbours told Barbara that Robert had searched her house, which contained all her belongings and those of her late husband and helped themselves to what they wanted. Barbara referred to this as “raping” her house. She was distraught.
Robert was seen filming his neighbours’ children from an upstairs window. He also made repeated demands for his neighbours to hand over his father’s ashes, which they had taken into safekeeping.
In the following years, Barbara and Robert fought a legal battle over her house, but the Court of Protection refused to act to protect her and her interests. Finally, once Peter had been got out of the way and jailed, Robert was able to sell her house and pocket the money.
THE KIDNAPPING
After having been hounded out of their refuge in Austria, Barbara and Peter went to Germany, where the authorities considered them to be “persecuted persons”. They thought they were safe now in Germany, but on the morning of 6th May 2014, around 20 men broke into their flat.
Barbara and Peter were both in their bedroom, ill in bed. Barbara had recently had a serious fall and was bed-ridden.
Around ten of these men – all in plain clothes – entered the bedroom. They did not identify themselves, but attacked Peter, knocking him off his bed onto the floor, where around five men stood on him while he was handcuffed. Peter is registered disabled and is physically not capable of offering resistance. Once he was handcuffed, these men sprayed the best part of a full can of pepper gas into his eyes at point-blank range. One of the men then sprayed what was left in the can over Barbara.
The officers then picked up Peter, threw him down the stairs and took him to a police station where he was held for four hours without being identified, read his rights, questioned or charged. He was then released without explanation.
Meanwhile, Grandma B was taken away, eventually being sent back to York, where she was crippled through wilful neglect, stripped of her assets and imprisoned. She is now being held incommunicado and suffering from neglect.
Her flat was then searched by her kidnappers, who removed a substantial amount of cash, her passport and medical card. Neighbours later confirmed that her abusive son Robert was present throughout the raid and directed the operation. They also claimed that among the 20 or so people present there were officers of the British Military Police as well as other English-speaking men and women.
Initially, the Ministry of Defence denied involvement – the RAF base at Gütersloh was nearby – but it was later conceded in Peter’s trial in Teesside Crown Court that British Military Police were present, along with officer(s) of North Yorkshire Police, and social worker(s) from York.
By then, Peter had been caring for his mother for six years. Her GPs, both in the UK and Austria, were among many people who praised him for the level of care he provided for her. This act of “granny snatching” badly traumatised Barbara. The level of “care” she has received at the hands of her abusers can only be described as appalling.
All Grandma B ever wanted (and still wants!) is to spend the final years of her life in peace and safety in her own home in the care of her loyal son Peter.
North Yorkshire Police and York Social Services have wilfully and maliciously denied her this very basic human right. Grandma B’s case is far from being isolated. Nobody can be safe as long as these police officers and social workers remain at large.
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Barbara became known as “Grandma B” in recognition of the fact she had been subjected to years of abuse and persecution by the authorities in Britain, Austria and Germany.
Born in London on 13th December 1928, Barbara was one of five daughters born to Charles and Kathleen Haslegrave. Her mother was chronically ill, so much of her childhood was spent caring for her. Evacuated to Cornwall during the Second World War, she went to the same school as Ronnie Biggs.
On returning to London, she started work in an electronics factory making parts for warplanes. While on summer holiday in 1948 she met the love of her life Paul Hofschröer, a German prisoner-of-war. They married that October.
Barbara gave birth to her first child Robert in 1951. Robert was born profoundly deaf but Barbara’s maternal instincts did much to help him overcome that handicap. Her second child Peter was born in 1956.
Once her children had reached school age, Barbara started work at Robert’s school, Old Kent Road School for the Deaf.
She had developed a natural talent for teaching deaf children. She was devoted to her school children and for many years ran a minibus taking them out at weekends and during school holidays.
Barbara retired in 1986 and moved with her husband to York, where Robert now lived. She brought up her grandchildren, allowing their parents to go to work.
Later, she cared for her ageing husband before this became too much for her. Peter then moved into the parental home to look after both parents. Paul passed away in January 2009.
Peter’s return to York caused a rift in the family. It became clear that Robert and his family had other plans for Barbara and Paul. The abuse of Grandma B began with aggressive attempts to seize her assets. As manager of York & District Deaf Society Robert had close links to the social services and police. They refused to safeguard Barbara against this abuse and started to make false allegations against Peter.
The case became more sinister once Lord Maginnis raised the police and social worker corruption in Parliament calling on the then Home Secretary Theresa May to carry out her duty and order an investigation. May evaded this, so the abuse continued.
Hounded out of her house in York, Barbara spent a few years living in Peter’s home in Austria before the authorities there forced them to seek refuge in Germany. Here, on 6th May 2014, Barbara was kidnapped by German and British police officers and York social workers led by Robert in person.
Barbara was then brought back to Britain before being put in a home and stripped of her assets. She spent eight years in this home before she passed away.
All Barbara ever wanted was to spend the final years of her life living in peace and safely in the care of her loyal son Peter. This was sadly not to be.
THE HOFSCHROER REPORT – THE ABUSE OF PSYCHIATRY AND THE RULE OF LAW IN AUSTRIA
