An “obsessed” former teacher at Ripon Grammar School has been jailed for over five years for waging a “relentless” three-year stalking campaign against an ex-colleague.

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.

Shiells denied stalking but was found guilty following a trial at York Crown Court in November and appeared for sentence today (January 29) after being remanded in custody.

Prosecutor Felicity Hemlin said Shiells repeatedly turned up at Ms Day’s home, smearing dog faeces on her property, staring at her through the kitchen window while “grinding her teeth” and clenching her fists, and waging an online smear campaign to damage her professional reputation.

Ms Hemlin, who likened the three-and-a-half-year harassment campaign to a “relentless crusade”, said that since Shiells’ sacking by the school in 2020 due to her behaviour, 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 faeces on a disabled ramp which Ms Day had installed outside her home for a family member.

Sent emails to parents

There were other occasions when Shiells would walk past Ms Day’s home, staring at her while holding a hockey stick, and drive “slowly” past her house.

Shiells, who was “obsessed and fixated” with Ms Day, also sent “numerous emails from numerous different accounts” to parents at the school, making “completely false” accusations about her 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 (untrue) accusations” against her “for many years”.

The “smear campaign” left Ms Day so terrified she stopped going out jogging and walking her dog, which had had a “devastating” effect on her.

Ms Hemlin said: “This was personal and professional (intimidation) and amounted to a crusade against Ms Day that was relentless and, to Ms Day, seemingly never-ending.”

Lived on-site at school

As deputy house parent at Ripon Grammar, Shiells looked 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 both Shiells and Ms Day had lived on-site at the school and Shiells continued to live there until ultimately being evicted from the school site due to her behaviour.

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”.

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

Ms Day had also seen Shiells standing outside windows at the school when she was working or during staff meetings.

In February 2021, Shiells made a series of anonymous, work-related and “completely false” complaints about Ms Day to government schools inspector Ofsted, the local education authority and the Teacher Regulation Agency which were dismissed out of hand but led to Ms Day suffering panic attacks and a “significant amount of distress”.

Shiells, who had a drink problem, then made a series of unsuccessful Subject Access Requests to Ripon Grammar School, asking for personal data about Ms Day.

‘Dig two graves – one for yourself’

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 character.

In July 2022, late at night, Ms Day received a call from a withheld number and recognised Shiells’ “slurring, loud” voice saying: “I’m not going to let this go. You are going to pay for what you have done.”

She was later horrified to discover that Shiells had started a weblog publishing confidential information about her including a satellite or “bird’s eye” picture of her garden and address, namely a map with a “yellow line” showing the trajectory from the main road to the school, “right up to her front door”.

Shiells was arrested in February 2023 but despite being warned about the impact of her behaviour on Ms Day, the social-media posts continued on the ‘Ripon Whistleblower’ blog, with a Facebook link to the website.

“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 14,000 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.

Shiells even boasted she had written to the prime minister and the secretary of state to alert them to the website.

In one section of the weblog, Shiells wrote: “When seeking revenge, dig two graves – one for yourself.”

‘I felt so vulnerable in my home’

In February 2024, Shiells, lately of Thornborough, near Bedale, published Ms Day’s work history on the blog and on X, formerly Twitter.

At the height of the stalking campaign, the school - which dates back to the Middle Ages and boasts fashion designer Bruce Oldfield, former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond and former Tory leader William Hague among its alumni - erected a six-foot fence, security lighting and CCTV around Ms Day’s garden, which abutted the school field, to protect her from Shiells.

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.”

In a victim statement read out by the prosecution, Ms Day said: “For almost five years now I’ve been suffering physically and emotionally from the behaviour of Barbara Shiells.

“I became obsessive with locking all the doors and windows so she couldn’t get into my house. We had security measures fitted (but) I felt so vulnerable in my home, scared to leave.”

She had installed a tracker app on her phone so her husband could be alerted in case Shiells appeared.

She said that Shiells’ unrelenting hate campaign had caused “dizzy spells and black-outs from the stress”.

She had to be chaperoned home by a senior school leader while Shiells tried to ruin her professional reputation with untrue allegations. 

‘Fuelled by hate’

Ms Day, who eventually had to leave the school and move home due to Shiells’ behaviour and took another job on a reduced salary, said that after the fence was erected around her garden, “my once peaceful garden turned into my prison.”

“I was terrified what she would do to me,” said Ms Day.

“I had significant time off work. I don’t know if I’ll ever get my confidence back. I feel like I’ve lost myself as a person. I’m currently on a high dose of medication for depression and anxiety and (undergoing) trauma therapy.”

Even now, she had planned escape routes when visiting cafes in case Shiells appeared and “avoided going to places (where Shiells might be) like Harrogate”.

“Barbara Shiells is so fuelled by hate towards me,” she added.

“I live in fear, on the edge. I don’t know if I can ever be that happy, confident person again.”

In June 2022, Shiells had her claim for unfair dismissal rejected after an employment tribunal heard that she had been the subject of an “unprecedented” number of complaints about her “behaviour, attitude, professionalism and ability” at the school.

Employment tribunal

The tribunal heard that she doled out “draconian” punishments including making students go on an early-morning run, before claiming overtime for doing it.

She was also described as “rude and abrasive” by her boss after being dismissed as deputy senior house parent less than a year into the role.

Ms Shiells, who previously worked as a PE teacher and personal trainer, claimed she was unfairly sacked for whistleblowing on her boss, but her claim was rejected by the employment tribunal.

Having sacked her last barrister after the trial, Shiells chose to represent herself when she appeared in court via video link from Low Newton women’s prison in County Durham after being remanded in custody since her four-day trial in November.

Sobbing and appearing agitated, the former teacher said: “I would like to say how sorry I am for the distress that I have caused Mrs Day.”

She admitted she had become “completely” alcohol dependent after the tribunal decision went against her in 2022 and at one stage she was drinking “well over” a litre bottle of whisky a day.

She added: “I realise my behaviour was wrong and I realise I need to get help for my anger issues. I do not believe I can be rehabilitated in prison.”

She said she just wanted “to go home to my dog” and that she didn’t feel safe in prison where she was living alongside serious criminals.

She pleaded with judge Simon Hickey to set her free and said that prison wasn’t “conducive for my rehabilitation”.

‘You became fixated on that woman’

But Mr Hickey said that Shiells’ “relentless” hate campaign against Ms Day was so egregious that anything other than immediate jail sentence was out of the question.

He said the victim’s life had been “devastated, ruined, by your behaviour”

He lambasted Shiells for her conduct towards her various legal representatives whom she had sacked during the legal process and said he even had “a barrister in the wings in case there was a final sacking on the day of the trial”.

He said that the three-and-a-half-year hate campaign was “either the longest period of stalking that I have come across in my judicial career or that I can find in the authorities”.

He described Shiells’ hate campaign as “never-ending, constant and repeated via numerous and different methods” which was designed to humiliate and harass Ms Day who was caused immense psychological harm.

He said that to aggravate matters, the prosecution had discovered that Shiells had used deception to get the job at the school in the first place by lying about her qualifications and background:

Restraining order

Mr Hickey said he was “rather sceptical” about Shiells’ newly discovered contrition about what she had done to Ms Day, having hitherto shown none.

“I observed during the trial your lack of remorse and sorrow which you now present,” he added.

“You decided to ruin Ms Day’s life (and) your behaviour towards former partners and friends has isolated you from them.”

Shiells was told she would likely serve less than half of her five-and-a-half-year jail sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.

She was also made subject to a lifetime restraining order banning her from contacting Ms Day and publishing any electronic or written material about her.'