A former teacher at a prestigious grammar school has been found guilty of waging a “relentless” three-year stalking campaign against an ex-colleague after blaming her for getting her sacked.

Barbara Shiells, 60, the ex-deputy house parent for boarders at Ripon Grammar School, began hounding former assistant head teacher Caroline Day after getting sacked in October 2020, York Crown Court heard.

Today at York Crown Court, following a week-long trial, a jury found Shiells guilty of stalking.

During the trial, the jury heard that Shiells repeatedly turned up at Ms Day’s home, leaving dog faeces on her property, staring at her through the kitchen window while “grinding her teeth” and waging an online smear campaign to damage her reputation.

Prosecutor Felicity Hemlin, who likened the three-and-a-half-year harassment campaign to a “relentless crusade”, said that since Shiells’s sacking in 2020, she had made it “her personal mission…to cause serious alarm and distress to (Ms Day)”.

She said that between October 2020 and April 2024, Shiells made Ms Day’s life a misery by turning up at her home on “numerous” occasions, staring at her through her kitchen window and twice leaving dog muck on a disabled ramp which Ms Day had installed outside her home for a family member.

On occasions, Shiells would walk past Ms Day’s home, staring at her while holding a hockey stick.

Shiells, who was “obsessed and fixated” with Ms Day, also sent “numerous emails from numerous different accounts” to parents at the school, making accusations about Ms Day and her work, and bombarding her with phone calls from withheld numbers.

She also published Ms Day’s telephone number and address online and set up a blog called ‘Ripon Whistleblower’ on which she made a “catalogue of accusations” against her “for many years”.

She also “tagged” Ms Day so that her name appeared on internet searches “with negative information”.

The prosecutor said that Ms Day’s fear of her address and phone number being made public left her wanting to change jobs.

However, the “smear campaign” made it difficult for her to apply for new roles and she was even fearful of leaving her home and walking her dog, which had a “devastating” effect on her.

Ms Hemlin said: 

Defendant pased victim's house 'up to 15 times a day'

Shiells worked as deputy house parent at Ripon Grammar, looking after boarding pupils, and started in that role in March 2020. Her then colleague Ms Day worked in various roles including assistant head teacher.

Ms Hemlin said that both Shiells and Ms Day had lived on-site at the school and Shiells continued to live there after being dismissed.

She said that days after her sacking in 2020, Shiells was standing outside Ms Day’s kitchen window “grinding her teeth with her fists up”.

“If Ms Day turned towards (the defendant), Shiells would just stand there, looking at her, like a statue, with no facial expression, not moving,” added Ms Hemlin.

She said that Shiells would pass “slowly” by Ms Day’s house “up to 15 times a day” which left her with “constant” anxiety.

Ms Hemlin said that Ms Day had also seen Shiells standing outside a window at the school when she was working.

In February 2021, Shiells made a series of anonymous, work-related complaints about Ms Day to Ofsted and the local education authority, which were dismissed but led to Ms Day suffering panic attacks and a “significant amount of distress”.

Ms Hemlin said there was “no legitimate claim” that Shiells could have made against Ms Day regarding her work.

Shiells then made a series of unsuccessful Subject Access Requests (SARs) to Ripon Grammar School, asking for personal data about Ms Day, ostensibly in relation to Shiells’s sacking.

Ms Day “thought that would be the end of it”, but in April 2022 Shiells resumed her “hate campaign” and sent an email to “all parents” of boarding-school pupils traducing Ms Day’s work and her character.

In July 2022, late at night, Ms Day received a call from a withheld number and recognised Shiells’s voice saying:

“Ms Day said (Shiells’s) voice was loud and she was slurring her words,” added Ms Hemlin.

'When seeking revenge, seek two graves - one for yourself'

Ms Day was later horrified to discover that Shiells had started a weblog publishing confidential information about her including pictures of her garden and details about her address.

In October 2022, Shiells sent an email under a false name to the housemaster at Ripon Grammar which contained a link to her blog.

She sent another email under a false name to school governors with a link to the website which was an “attempt to discredit, humiliate and harass” Ms Day.

Four days later, she sent another email, under her real name, to “all parents” at the school with a link to the blog.

Shiells was arrested in February 2023 but despite being warned about the impact of her behaviour on Ms Day, the social media posts continued unabated on the ‘Ripon Whistleblower’ blog, with a Facebook link to the website and pictures of the grounds of Ripon Grammar and Ms Day’s home. The photo outlined the route from the main road, through the school to Ms Day’s home where she lived with her family.

“That left Ms Day extremely distressed and upset, leaving her fearing someone might attend her property and cause her harm,” added Ms Hemlin.

Shiells had boasted that she had “over 40,000 views and over 3,000 visitors” to her blog, which left Ms Day feeling extremely depressed, fearing that Shiells had “supporters” who may wish her ill.

Ms Day’s ordeal continued into early 2024, when Shiells posted information about the complaints she had made about Ms Day to the education authorities and shared a photo of her former colleague which was taken “without her consent or knowledge”.

In one section of the weblog, Shiells wrote:

In February last year, Shiells published Ms Day’s work history on the blog and on X, formerly Twitter.

Ms Day had to change her daily routine and underwent counselling to help her cope with the incessant stalking.

“She stopped walking and running on her own and had to take considerable time off work due to the ongoing stress and anxiety,” said Ms Hemlin.

Ms Day was “in no doubt” that Shiells was trying to “destroy her life, career and her mental health.”

Shiells, now living in Thornborough, near Bedale, denied stalking Ms Day but was found guilty this afternoon (24 November).

Her barrister Carl Buckley said that Shiells accepted “certain allegations” such as publishing information about Ms Day on the weblog and making allegations about her to various regulatory bodies which were dismissed.

He claimed, however, that this did not amount to stalking as she felt she was “justified in what she did” and believed she was acting in the best interests of the school.

Judge Simon Hickey adjourned sentence to January 14. Shiells was remanded in custody until then.