Squirrel Involvement in Tulip Beheadings Denied

Karen Liebreich adamant that attack on her garden was vandalism

The flower head were neatly lined up on a doormat. Picture: Karen Liebreich

The woman who had the flowers in her front garden destroyed last month has insisted that it was a case of vandalism after the incident attracted national press attention.

On the night of 29/30 April over thirty of Karen Liebreich's flowers were methodically decapitated. These included tulips and daffodils in flower beds in her front garden and plants in pots on her doorstep. Every plant in the garden was damaged except for some apple blossom.

Ms Liebreich said, “There has been much discussion that the damage was caused by squirrels, and some people with time on their hands have kindly trawled through the Abundance twitterfeed to find previous comments that squirrels have damaged my tulips. Yes, they chew occasional tulip bulbs and bite off their heads.

“But this was definitely not squirrel damage: squirrels do not methodically snip off every single flower; they rarely attack daffodils. I have never seen a squirrel in my front garden and no neighbouring gardens were attacked. When all the flowers in just my front garden accessible from the road are methodically cut off it is beyond reasonable doubt an act of vandalism, not squirrels and as such I reported this to the police.”

She collected up the neatly clipped flower heads and shared a photo of them with friends including TV presenter Jeremy Vine. He posted the photo on social media saying that the flowers had been damaged because of Ms Liebreich’s support for cycling measures in the Chiswick area and making an implication that members of the OneChiswick group were involved. OneChiswick is opposed to the temporary cycle lane in Chiswick and is raising funds for a legal challenge to the scheme. The group issued a statement deploring vandalism and denying the 'false insinuations' that it was involved. A complaint has been made to the BBC about Mr Vine’s post.

A Labour councillor from Wandsworth, Jo Rigby, set up a JustGiving page to raise funds for the replacement of the flowers with an initial target of £100. In the event this received over £2000 of donations. Ms Liebreich, who was not informed about the fundraiser until it had reached over £400, originally intended to use the money raised for public planting projects in Chiswick but now it is understood a proportion is being given to a charity that supports the victims of road accidents.

Ms Liebreich says she has never accused anyone of being responsible for the damage to her flowers and that she has been personally assured by a member of OneChiswick that nobody associated with the group was responsible.

She remains adamant however that the incident was malicious saying, “I have no evidence of who might have committed this vandalism, nor have I made any statements, except to defend squirrels. I have lived in Chiswick for around 25 years and had nothing similar happen. In recent years I have received abuse both online concerning cycling and in the street. Safe cycling – which I support on grounds of safety and environmental benefit – has proved a polarising subject where I have taken a clear position.”

Ms Liebreich is a co-founder and director of Abundance London which has created and cares for pocket gardens around Chiswick. She is one of the driving forces behind the Chiswick Timeline, the Piazza area on Turnham Green Terrace, the W4th Art Plinth, the Chiswick House Kitchen Garden as well as being one of the founding directors of the Chiswick Flower Market. All of her work on these projects is unpaid.

As a result of these incident she has had a journalist from a national newspaper knocking on the door of her home on two consecutive days and been mentioned in letters of complaint made to the press and the BBC. As well as reporting the matter to the police she has also instructed solicitors to act on her behalf on the matter.

May 16, 2021