A notorious Harrogate man waged a relentless stalking campaign against his ex-partner in which he harried her on social media, strangled her and left a crushed-up Viagra tablet outside her home in the hope that her dog would eat it.
John Christian Lister, 33, couldn’t accept the end of his relationship with the victim in December 2022 and proceeded to make her life a misery, York Crown Court heard.
Her ordeal began on April 16 last year when she was awoken just after midnight by her dog barking.
Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said that when the victim went to investigate, she found that her front gate had been damaged.
The following morning, the intruder, who turned out to be Lister, sent her a text message which read: “I turned up last night.”
He later apologised and said he would replace the damaged gate, after which the victim, who was named in court, reactivated her Facebook account and unblocked him.
But on May 18, he sent her several “insulting” Snapchat messages while asking her to get back together with him. He then went to her home, banged on the front door and emptied her wheelie bins on the front lawn.
Nine days later, the victim was on a night out with friends when she came across Lister who was initially friendly, but when they bumped into each other a second time that night, he badgered her to get back with him, swore at her when she refused, pushed her and “stormed off”.
Meanwhile, she continued to be bombarded with menacing messages from Lister or “third parties”.
Ms Morison said Lister even contacted some of the victim’s friends, urging them to persuade her to “unblock” him from her social media accounts.
On June 26, he went to her home and “crushed a Viagra tablet on her front porch with the intention that her dog would eat it”.
In November, the victim was out in town with a friend when Lister came up to them outside a bar in Parliament Street. First, he threatened her friend, then he pushed the victim in the chest and shoved her friend out of the way. Ms Morrison said:
“He put his hood up and ran towards them, grabbed (the victim) by the throat and began strangling her with one hand while pulling her hair with the other.”
She said that Lister was pinning the victim to a shop window while pulling her hair. He then left the scene and as he walked away, shouted: “You better watch your house.”
Police were called out and officers arrested Lister a few streets away. He was charged with stalking, assault, intentional strangulation and damaging the victim’s property.
Interrupting court hearing
He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence today in a belligerent mood, frequently interrupting the court hearing, including by questioning parts of the prosecution case.
In a statement read out by the prosecution in court, the victim said Lister’s unrelenting behaviour had caused her great anxiety and fear to the extent that she was “afraid to leave home to go into town”.
She felt scared to be home alone and had even changed the route on which she walked her dogs. She was “always looking over her shoulder” and was now taking anti-depressants.
Lister, who had been remanded in custody following his arrest, had a track record for serious violence, his rap sheet comprising 23 previous offences including grievous bodily harm, being drunk and disorderly, threatening behaviour, battery, drugs possession and a wounding for which he received a three-year jail sentence in 2014.
Defence barrister Kelleigh Lodge said that Lister now “fully accepted” the relationship was over and was genuinely sorry for his behaviour.
She said the offences were linked to his excessive alcohol use at the time.
Judge Sean Morris banished Lister from the court before sentence due to the Harrogate man’s petulant behaviour in the dock.
Lister, of Harewood Road, was taken down to the cells before Mr Morris, the Recorder of York, sentenced him to 18 months’ jail for the stalking and strangulation offences.
Lister was also given a five-year restraining order banning him from contacting the victim and going within 100 metres of her address.
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