In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Paul Erasmus, a secret service operative, stated that from about 1978 till late in the 1980s, he and his colleagues had on many occasions damaged the property of Mrs Joseph by throwing stones through the windows of her house, made telephone threats, fired shots at the house but did not intend to injure any person, ordered and caused unwanted supplies to be delivered to her house, and poured paint remover over her motor car, as well as a car belonging to Ann Hughes, when the latter visited her.