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20
Jun
Harrogate man jailed for making woman's life a 'perpetual hell' for years
An obsessed optician worker has been jailed yet again for harassing a beleaguered woman whose life was made a “perpetual hell” for nearly a decade.
Carl Ingles, 46, from Harrogate, hounded the woman for years and even a series of prison sentences failed to deter him, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Kelly Clarke said that Ingles had been shackled by a restraining order imposed in 2018 following a violent offence against the woman, but there then followed a series of breaches of that order, culminating in the latest transgression on Christmas Eve last year, when he called her on Facebook.
Ingles, an outwardly respectable man who had a responsible job with Specsavers, found the woman on Facebook and called her twice in quick succession. The named victim reported him to police and Ingles was charged with harassment/breaching a restraining order.
He denied the offence but was found guilty following a trial at Harrogate Magistrates’ Court in April. He appeared at the Crown Court for sentence yesterday (June 19).
Ms Clarke said the original order was imposed in 2017 and later amended in 2018 when Ingles was banned from contacting the woman for life.
But, due to his obsession with the terrified woman, he breached the order repeatedly by harassing and contacting her in 2017, 2022 and 2023.
Ingles was on prison licence – having been released from prison following one of the numerous breaches – in July last year, when, on December 23, the victim received a Facebook friend request from “two separate females” but her suspicion was that it was “something to do with the defendant”.
The following day, she noticed she had two missed Facebook calls from Ingles which were made within a minute of each other. She recognised the caller from his profile picture.
Ingles, of Skipton Road, was arrested but claimed he had contacted the woman “by accident” after chancing upon her Facebook profile.
Ms Clarke added:
He said he had got on with his life, got a job and a flat and had no further intention to contact the (victim).
The woman said that, after suffering at the hands of Ingles for so many years, she had finally regained stability in her life when he contacted her again on Christmas Eve.
She was looking forward to having family around for Christmas, but this was ruined by the unwanted calls which made her feel “sick and dizzy” and led to flashbacks.
Ms Clarke said:
She felt this was a deliberate attempt to ruin her Christmas and she spent most of the night awake and upset.
Not only was her Christmas wrecked, but Ingles’ phantom-like reappearance in her life had triggered her post-traumatic stress disorder.
Ms Clarke addded:
She said that at times she would rather be dead than suffer the perpetual hell that this defendant inflicted upon her.
She said that when Ingles was in prison, she had a “window of time where she had peace”, but his latest flagrant contravention of the order had “robbed her of that safe, peaceful, happy life”.
Ingles – who used to work at Boots opticians in Harrogate but who had been at Specsavers since October last year – had eight previous convictions for 14 offences, all against the same woman and including seven breaches of the same restraining order.
In October 2023, Ingles was jailed for two years for yet another breach of the order designed to protect the woman, with whom he was “fixated”.
The court heard he had made the victim’s life a “complete misery” for years and the then sentencing judge said he had made her “worried sick” and that she “lived in constant fear of the defendant” due to his “scary and disturbing” behaviour.
Defence barrister Zarreen Alan-Cheetham said that Ingles had made a “marked change for the better” since his latest offence and was trying to turn his life around following a “cycle of offending” against the same woman.
She said that Ingles was now abstinent from drugs and alcohol and had beaten his addiction.
“For 37 years he led a crime-free life,” added Ms Alan-Cheetham.
“All his offending relates to the (victim).”
Recorder Simon Kealey KC told Ingles:
Your offending has had a serious effect upon the victim and has done for a number of years.
He said that Ingles had been convicted of a “persistent, deliberate” breach of the order and rejected out of hand Ingles’ claim that he had contacted the victim accidentally.
He said that Ingles’ offence was “very seriously aggravated” by his track record for similar behaviour against the same woman “over a prolonged period”.
Ingles received a 10-month jail sentence but was told he would only spend up to half of that time behind bars before being released on prison licence.
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