Man 'told to destroy CCTV of addict near Tottenham flat'

Man 'told to destroy CCTV of addict near Tottenham flat'

Shocking CCTV has revealed the moment a woman stripped outside a doorstep before appearing to inject herself with heroin.

The horrified tenant was alerted to the graphic behaviour on his mobile phone when cameras picked up movement and it was messaged to him.

He raced home to his one-bedroom flat in Tottenham, North London, but the woman and two other suspected drug users caught on camera had already left the scene.

The man, aged 50, then took crime-prevention into his own hands - shaming the woman by plastering dozens of posters of her half-naked antics around the council flats.

But after reporting the incident to the council and housing association, he claims he was told to get rid of his footage and the cameras and said he felt like they were doing more to 'protect the offenders' than the tenants. 

He originally posted the footage to YouTube in his outrage, complaining about a lack of action from authorities, and then printed out posters of the footage to put up around the building.

Days later his surveillance camera, hidden inside a door bell, picked up the woman's humiliated and angry reaction as she stormed over to the picture and tore it down.

But he claims the local housing trust, Metropolitan, asked him to remove his cameras and stop filming the apparent criminals because it would be 'offensive' to the alleged drug users.

The bachelor, who lives alone in his one-bedroom apartment, said his tactics of humiliating the woman with posters of her behaviour were successful and he had saved the block of council flats on Pretoria Road from crime, with CCTV cameras around the flats 'not working for seven years'.

Speaking to Viral Press, he said: 'This had been going on for a while but when I saw the woman strip like that right outside my house I knew something had to be done.

'I was disgusted. This was vile, dangerous and unhealthy and to have it inches from your home, where you sleep, made me shudder.

'Watching them every night on the video cameras was creepy. They were like zombies, like the Living Dead, just scurrying around outside my home.

'I carried on filming them every day, and complained but nothing was ever being done. The police did nothing.

'The council actually asked me to remove my cameras and stop filming them, like it was offensive to the junkies and they wanted to protect them more than the residents.'

The man moved into the home in 1998 but said problems began in early 2015.

At first he turned a blind eye to the issues believing they would go away but the alleged 'infestation' of heroin users became worse.

His doorbell camera captured hours of them 'swarming like locusts' outside his flat, which is on the fourth floor of the building.

He then captured the disturbing footage of the woman injecting herself while two men appear partially clothed on the stairs nearby.

The resident said he decided to take direct action and produced his own wanted-style posters in December last year which finally began to deter the addicts.

The resident has also handed all the footage to police and is only sharing it now because he the drug will not return, but has asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

He added: 'I complained for two years and nothing was done about it. I filmed them for hours and hours.

'I had confrontations with them and told them to get out of there but they kept coming back. That was until I made the posters shaming the woman.

'It's like I single-handedly cleared them out when nobody was doing anything else. I had to take the law into my own hands.

'I was abandoned by the local authority and the police. Nobody was interested in protecting the rights of law-abiding people.'

A Haringey Council spokesperson said: 'We take concerns about street drugs activity very seriously. 

'Anyone who has information about drugs activity in their neighbourhood can report issues online or via our dedicated anti-social behaviour action line. 

'We recognise that drugs misuse can cause a number of problems, which is why we also offer a range of advice and support services for people affected by substance misuse, including drug users and their families.'  

A spokesperson from Metropolitan said: 'The footage captured in front of the home last year is very upsetting and we appreciate it must have been distressing for him to see.

'We do not tolerate drug use on the estates we manage, and we do everything we can to challenge and prevent it.