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19
Sept 2024
'Jealous and obsessed' Harrogate man jailed for stalking ex-partner
An “obsessed and jealous” Harrogate man has been jailed for over two years for the “persistent” stalking of his ex-partner who was “in fear for her life”.
Lee Bull, 35, turned up at the victim’s address in Knaresborough on multiple occasions despite being prohibited from doing so by a restraining order following previous violent and harassment offences against the named victim, York Crown Court heard.
On occasions he would turn up on her doorstep shouting and banging on her door, asking to be let in, said prosecutor Zarreen Alan-Cheetham.
Even Bull’s defence barrister said the unrelenting harassment campaign was “bang out of order”.
Bull, of King Edward’s Drive, was charged with two counts of breaching a restraining order and stalking. He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence today after being remanded in custody.
Ms Alan-Cheetham said the offences were in breach of a 48-week suspended prison sentence imposed in May for previous offences of stalking, battery and breaching a restraining order, all against the same victim.
The order prohibited Bull from contacting the named victim and going to her address but in the early hours of July 11, he went to her home where he “continually shouted her name, banged on the door and pressed the doorbell until she answered”.
Ms Alan-Cheetham said:
Upon opening the door, the defendant said he could not cope with her being with a new partner and was jealous of the new relationship and would kill himself.
Bull kept asking the victim to let her in, but she refused.
“He tried to get into the address by putting his arm or leg in, (but) she closed the door,” added the prosecuting barrister.
Bull, who worked as a postman and delivery driver, left the property but returned the following afternoon on three occasions in the space of 20 minutes.
The victim was not in at the time, but she could see him on her doorstep on live video footage after receiving a notification on her phone’s Ring Doorbell app.
The footage showed Bull knocking on and trying to open the front door, before leaving when he saw police drive past.
York Crown Court.
As well as these breaches of the restraining order, Bull was charged with stalking in that he repeatedly drove past the victim’s house between mid-May and July 12 which had caused her “fear, alarm and distress”.
When being quizzed by police about the offences, he told officers that the victim had a “good heart” and he had “reached out for sympathy”.
In a statement read out by the prosecution, the victim said she had feared for her life and was “fed up with feeling unsafe, anxious and depressed” due to Bull’s unrelenting behaviour.
She said the psychological impact it had had on her was “overpowering” and “difficult to describe”. She couldn’t sleep, felt “fatigued” and had suffered hair loss due to the stress.
The continual harassment and the ensuing court proceedings had also affected her performance as a student nurse, and she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to finish her final year.
Defence barrister Rachel Webster said that Bull, a father-of-two who was due to become a father for the third time this week, was “deeply remorseful” for his behaviour.
She added:
He appreciates his actions were bang out of order.
Judge Geoffrey Marson KC branded Bull’s behaviour “disgraceful” and condemned him for breaching the restraining order “within a very short time” of it being imposed.
He told the Harrogate man:
(The victim) has been profoundly affected by what you have done and you are clearly, or have been, completely obsessed with her and jealous, and I’m afraid…I’m entirely satisfied that there is no realistic prospect of rehabilitation.
The offences themselves are so serious…that only immediate custody can be justified.
The judge also made Bull subject to a new, five-year restraining order banning him from contacting the victim and going anywhere near her address, which included two streets surrounding the one in which she lived.
For breaching the restraining order, Bull was jailed for two years, with an additional two months consecutive for stalking. The judge also activated part of the original suspended sentence of which Bull was also in breach.
He will serve half of the total sentence of two years and 24 weeks behind bars before being released on prison licence.
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